178 PUNT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



CHAP. 36. THE MATURE OF THE VARIOUS SEEDS. 



In most plants the seed is round, in some oblong ; it is broad 

 and foliaceous in some, orage for instance, while in others it is 

 narrow and grooved, as in cummin. There are differences, 

 also, in the colour of seeds, which is either black or white ; 

 while some seeds are woody and hard, in radishes, mustard, 

 and rape, the seeds are enclosed in pods. In parsley, corian- 

 der, anise, fennel, and cummin, the seed has no covering at all, 

 while in blite, beet, orage, and ocimum, it has an outer coat, 

 and in the lettuce it is covered with a fine down. There is no 

 seed more prolific than that of ocimum ; 80 it is generally re- 

 commended 81 to sow it with the utterance of curses and im- 

 precations, the result being that it grows all the better for it ; 

 the earth, too, is rammed down when it is sown, and prayers 

 offered that the seed may never come up. The seeds which are 

 enveloped in an outer coat, are dried with considerable diffi- 

 culty, that of ocimum more particularly ; hence it is that all 

 these seeds are dried artificially, their fruitfulness being greatly 

 promoted thereby. 



Plants in general come up better when the seed is sown in 

 heaps than when it is scattered broad-cast : leeks, in fact, and 

 parsley are generally grown by sowing the seed in little bags : 82 

 in the case of parsley, too, a hole is made with the dibble, and a 

 layer of manure inserted. 



All garden plants grow either from seed or from slips, and 

 some from both seed and suckers, such as rue, wild marjoram, 

 and ocimum, 53 for example this last being usually cut when 

 it is a palm in height. Some kinds, again, are reproduced 

 from both seed and root, as in the case of onions, garlic, and 

 bulbs, and those other plants of which, though annuals them- 

 selves, the roots retain their vitality. In those plants which 

 grow from the root, it lives for a considerable time, and throws 

 out offsets, as in bulbs, scallions, and squills for example. 



80 Fee says that basil, the Ocimum basilicum of Linnaeus, is not meant 

 here, nor yet the leguminous plant that was known to the Romans by that 

 name. 



81 A singular superstition truly ! Taeophrastus says the same in rela- 

 tion to cummin seed. 



52 This is not done at the present day. 



83 This can hardly be our basil, the Ocimum bar,ilicum. for that plant is 

 an annual. 



