328 PLINY'S NATFEAL HISTORY. [Book XXI. 



CHAP. 24. THE CYANOS : THE HOLOCHBYBOS. 



The name, 79 too, of the cyanos 80 indicates its colour, and so 

 does that of the holochrysos. 81 None of these flowers were 

 in use in the time of Alexander the Great, for the authors, we 

 find, who flourished at a period immediately after his decease, 

 have made not the slightest mention of them; from which 

 circumstance it is very clear that they only came into fashion 

 at a later period. Still, however, who can entertain any 

 doubt that they were first introduced by the Greeks, from 

 the fact that Italy has only their Greek names by which to 

 designate them ? 



CHAP. 25. THE PET1LITO I THE BELL10. 



But, by Hercules ! it is Italy herself that has given its 

 name to the petilium, 82 an autumnal flower, which springs up 

 in the vicinity of thorny brakes, and recommends itself solely 

 by its colour, which is that of the wild rose. The petals of ; 

 it are small, and five in number ; and it is a remarkable cir- ' 

 cumstance in this plant, that the head of it droops at first, and 

 it is only after it becomes erect that the petals make their ap- 

 pearance, forming a small corolla of various colours, enclosing 

 a yellow seed. 



The bellio, 83 too, is a yellow flower, formed of 84 fifty-five 

 filaments circularly arranged, in the shape of a chaplet. These 

 are, both of them, meadow flowers, which are mostly of no use 

 whatever, and consequently without names : even the flowers 

 just mentioned are known sometimes by one name, and some- 

 times by another. 



79 Being the Greek for " blue" or " azure." 



80 The Centaurea cyanus of Linnaeus ; our blue-bell, 



81 Meaning " all gold." It has been identified with the Gnaphalium 

 stoechas of Linnaeus, the immortelle of the French, which forms the ingre- 

 dient for their funereal chaplets. 



82 Sprengel says that this is the Geum rivale of Linnaeus ; but then the 

 Geum is a spring, and not an autumn flower, its blossoms bear no resem- 

 blance to those of the eglantine, and its seeds are not yellow. 



83 Generally supposed to be the Chrysanthemum segetum, or golden 

 daisy. 



84 " Pastillicantibus quinquagenis quinis barbulis coronatur." Pliny is 

 unusually verbose here. 



