Chap. 30.] BULBS, SQUILLS, AND ARUM. 169 



dicirml properties; of which we shall have occasion to speak 

 more at length in the succeeding Book. 36 



The other species of hulbs are distinguished by their colour, 

 size, and sweetness ; indeed, there are some that are eaten raw 

 even those found in the Tauric Chersonesus, for instance. 

 Next to these, the bulbs of Africa are held in the highest 

 esteem, and after them those of Apulia. The (liveks have 

 distinguished the following varieties: the bulbine, 37 the seta- 

 nion,^ the upitim,- y the eyix, ;U) the leucoiou, 31 the a^gi lips, 3 - and 

 the HSyrinohion" in the last there is this remarkable feature, 

 that the extremities of the roots increase in winter, hut during 

 the spring, when the violet appears, they diminish in size and 

 gradually contract, and then it, is that the bulb begins to in- 

 crease in magnitude. 



Among the varieties of the bulb, too, there is the plant 

 known in Kgypt by the name of "aron." w In size it is very 

 nearly as large as the squill, with a leaf like that of lapathum, 

 and a straight stalk a couple of cubits in length, and the thick- 

 ness of a walking-stick : the root of it is of a milder nature, 

 so nnu-h so, indeed, as to admit of being eaten raw. 



Bulbs are taken up before the spring, for if not, they are 

 apt to spoil very quickly. It is a sign that they are ripe when 

 the li-aves become dry at the lower extremities. When too 

 old they are held in disesteem; the same, too, with the long 

 and the smaller ones; those, on the other hand, which are red 

 and round are greatly preferred, as also those of the largest 

 sixe. In most of them there is a certain degree of pungency 

 in the upper part, but the middle is sweet. The ancients have 



-" In c. 39. 



-" Fee thinks that this may bo tho Muscaria botryoidos of Miller, Diet. 

 No. I. See also H. xx. c. 41. 



* A variety, probably, of the common onion, the Alliumcepa of Linnaeus. 



29 Some variety of the genus Allium, Fee thinks. 



30 Fee queries whether this may not be some cyperaceous plant with a 

 bulbous root. 



;il A whito bulb, if we may judge from the name. The whole of this 

 passim,' is from Theophrastus", Hist. Plant. li. vii. c. 11. 



3 - This has not been ulmtitu'd. The old reading was "aegilops," a 

 name now given to a kind of grass. 



33 The Iris sisyrinchium of Linnaeus. 



34 The Arum colocasia of Linnaeus, held in great esteem by the ancient 

 Egyptians us a veax-taUe. Tho root is not a bulb, but tubercular, and th<; 

 leaf hears no resemblance to that of the Lapathum, dock or sorrel. It 

 was sometimes known by the name of "lotus." 



