Chap. 17.] SAFFECm. 319 



is odoriferous in the root only. In former times, it was the 

 practice to make unguents of this root, as we learn from the 

 poet Aristophanes, a writer of the Ancient Comedy ; from 

 which circumstance some persons have erroneously given the 

 name of " exotic" 8 to the plant. The smell of it strongly re- 

 sembles that of cinnamomum ; and the plant grows in thin 

 soils, which are free from all humidity. 



The name of " combretum " 9 is given to a plant that bears 

 a very strong resemblance to it, the leaves of which taper to 

 the fineness of threads ; in height, however, it is taller than 

 the bacchar. These are the only 10 * * * * The error, 

 however, ought to be corrected, on the part of those who have 

 bestowed upon the bacchar the name of " field nard ;" for that 

 in reality is the surname given to another plant, known to the 

 Greeks as " asaron," the description and features of which we 

 have already n mentioned, when speaking of the different va- 

 rieties of nard. I find, too, that the name of "asaron " has 

 been given to this plant, from the circumstance of its never u 

 being employed in the composition of chaplets. 



CHAP. 17. SAFFRON: IN WHAT PLACES rr GROWS BEST. WHAT 



FLOWERS WERE KNOWN AT THE TIME OF THE TROJAN WAR. 



The wild saffron 13 is the best ; indeed, in Italy it is of no 



gloves. The only strong objection to this is the fact that the root of the 

 digitalis has a very faint but disagreeable smell, and not at all like that of 

 cinnamon. But then, as Fee says, we have no positive proof that the 

 " cinnamomum" of the ancients is identical with our cinnamon. See Vol. 

 iii. p. 138. Sprengel takes the " hacchar" of Virgil to he the Valeriana 

 Celtica, and the " baccharis" of the Greeks to be the Gnaphalium san- 

 guineum, a plant of Egypt and Palestine. The bacchar has been also 

 identified with the Asperula odorata of Linnaeus, the Geum urbanum of 

 Linnaeus (the root of which has the smell of cloves), the Inula Vaillantii, 

 the Salvia Sclarea, and many other plants. 



8 " Barbaricam." Everything that was not indigenous to the territory 

 of Rome, was "barbarum," or " barbaricum." 



9 Cffisalpinus says that this is a rushy plant, called, in Tuscany, Herba 

 luziola ; but Fee is quite at a loss for its identification. 



10 Sillig is most probably right in his surmise that there is an hiatus 

 here. 



11 In B. xii. c. 27. Asarum Europaeum, or foal-foot. 



12 Probably meaning that it comes from d, "not," and <rafpw, "to adorn." 



13 Or Crocus, the Crocus sativus of Linnaeus, from the prepared stigmata 

 of which the saffron of commerce is made. It is still found growing wild 

 on the mountains in the vicinity of Athens, and is extensively cultivated 

 in many parts of Europe, 



