170 PLINY'S KATUEAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the 

 champaign country of Prseneste they grow spontaneously, 

 and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the 

 Remi. 35 



CHAP. 31. (6.) THE HOOTS, FLOWERS, AND LEAYES OF ALL THESE 



PLANTS. GARDEN PLANTS WHICH LOSE THEIR LEAYES. 



Nearly all 36 the garden plants have a single 37 ^ropt only, 

 radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example ; it is lapa- 

 thum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attain- 

 ing the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild 

 kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will 

 keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants, 

 however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley 

 and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a 

 ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example ; and in others they 

 are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some, 

 again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish 

 and the rape ; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass. 39 

 Those plants which have not a straight root throw out imme- 

 diately a great number of hairy fibres, orage 39 and blite, 40 for 

 instance : squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have 

 any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spon- 

 taneously, there are some which have more numerous roots 

 than leaves, spalax, 41 for example, pellitory, 42 and saffron. 43 



Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue 

 bLssom all 44 at once; while others, again, shed their blossom 

 directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum 45 blossoms gradu- 



35 In Gaul. See B, iv. c. 31. 



36 This passage, and indeed nearly the whole of the Chapter, is bor- 

 rowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 9. 



37 Fee thinks that by the expression fiovopptZa, Theophrastus means a 

 root that strikes vertically, instead of spreading. 



38 Gramen. See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxiv. c. 118. 



S9 Atriplex. See B. xx. c. 83. 40 See B. xx. c. 93. 



41 Poinsinet suggests that this may mean the " mole-plant/' acTraXaZ 

 being the Greek for "mole." 



" " Perdicium." See B. xxii. cc. 19, 20. 



43 " Crocus.'* See B. xxi. c. 17, et seq. 



44 This is not the fact. All these assertions are from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 3. 



45 Fee thinks that the ocimum of Pliny is not the basil of the moderns, 

 the Ocimum basilicum of the naturalists. The account, however, here 

 given would very well apply to basil. 



