316 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOHY. [Book XXI 



gum 84 which belongs to it, similarly to hipposelinum 55 in fact : 

 indeed, there is no plant that is more prolific than this, a sin- 

 gle root often giving birth to as many as fifty bulbs. 86 There 

 is, also, a red lily, known by the name of " crinon" 87 to the 

 Greeks, though there are some authors who call the flower of 

 it " cynorrodon." ^ The most esteemed are those of Antiochia 

 and Laodicea in Syria, and next to them that of Phaselis. 8 * 

 To the fourth rank belongs the flower that grows in Italy. 



CHAP. 12. THE NAKCISSUS I THREE VARIETIES OF IT. 



There is a purple 90 lily, too, which sometimes has a double 

 stem ; it differs only from the other lilies in having a more 

 fleshy root and a bulb of larger size, but undivided : 91 the 

 name given to it is " narcissus." 92 A second variety of this lily 

 has a white flower, with a purple corolla. There is also this 

 difference between the ordinaiy lily and the narcissus, that in 

 the latter the leaves spring from the root of the plant. The 

 finest are those which grow on the mountains of Lycia. A 

 third variety is similar to the others in every respect, except 

 that the corolla of the plant is green. They are all of them 

 late 93 flowers: indeed, they only bloom after the setting of 

 Arcturus, 94 and at the time of the autumnal equinox. 



84 This absurd notion is derived from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ii. 

 c. 2, and B. vi. c. 6. 85 See B. xix. c. 48. 



86 The root really consists of certain fine fibres, to which the bulbs, or 

 rather cloves or offsets, are attached. 



87 Judging from what Theocritus says, in his 35th Idyl, the " crinon " 

 would appear to have been a white lily. Sprengel, however, takes the red 

 lily of Pliny to be the scarlet lily, the Lilium Chalcedonicum of Linnaeus. 



88 Or " dog-rose :" a name now given to one of the wild roses. 

 83 See B. xiii. c. 9. 



90 Fee remarks, that it is singular that Pliny, as also Virgil, Eel. v. 1. 38, 

 should have given the epithet " purpureus" to the Narcissus. It is owing, 

 Fee says, to the red nectary of the flower, which is also bordered with a 

 very bright red. 9l Into cloves or offsets. 



92 The Narcissus poeticus of Linnaeus. Pliny gives the origin of its 

 name in c. 75 of this Book. 



93 Though supported by Theophrastus, this assertion is quite erroneous. 

 In France, even, Fee says', the Narcissus poeticus blossoms at the end of 

 April, and sooner, probably, in the climates of Greece and Italy. 



94 See B. xviii. c. 76. It is just possible that Pliny and Theophrastus 

 may be speaking of the Narcissus scrotinus of Linnajus, which is found in 

 great abundance in the southern provinces of Naples, and is undoubtedly 

 the flower alluded to by Virgil in the words, "Nee sera comantem Narcis- 

 sum," Georg. iv. 11. 122, 123. 



