338 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXI. 



Jove, and another kind of lily, 53 as also the tiphyon 5i and the 

 amaracus, surnamed that of Phrygia. But the most remark - 

 ahle flower of all is the pothos, 55 of which there are two 

 varieties, one with the flower of the hyacinth, 56 and another 

 with a white flower, which is generally found growing about 

 graves, and is better able to stand bad weather. The iris, 57 

 also, blossoms in summer. All these flowers pass away, how- 

 ever, and fade ; upon which others assume their places in 

 autumn, a third kind of lily, 58 for instance, saffron, and two 

 varieties of the orsinum 59 one of them inodorous and the other 

 scented making their appearance, all of them, as soon as the 

 first autumnal showers fall. 



The garland-makers employ the flowers of the thorn 80 even 

 for making chaplets ; the tender shoots, too, of the white 

 thorn are sometimes preserved as a choice morsel 61 to tempt 

 the palate. 



Such is the succession of the summer flowers in the parts 

 beyond sea : in Italy, the violet is succeeded by the rose, the 

 lily comes on while the rose is still in flower, the cyanus 62 suc- 

 ceeds the rose, and the amaranth the cyanus. As to the vin- 



58 Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. Ti. c. 7, mentions the " cerinthus" 

 next after the flower of Jove : Pliny seems to have taken it for a kind of 

 lily. This flower has not been identified. 



'& Sprengel takes this to be the Lavandula spica, or Lavender. 



55 Hardouin identifies this with the Lychnis Chalcedonica, or Cross of 

 Jerusalem, with which opinion Fee seems inclined to coincide. Other 

 commentators incline to the opinion that it is the Jasminum fruticans, a 

 plant in which, beyond its smell, there is nothing at all remarkable. The 

 exotic monocotyledon, known as the " Pothos," has no connection with 

 the plant here mentioned. 



56 This, according to some, is the Lychnis Chalcedonica, the next being 

 the Jasminum fruticans. 



57 As known to us, all the varieties of the iris blossom in spring. 



58 The purple lily, Fee thinks. 



59 If this is the correct reading, which is very doubtful, this plant is 

 unknown. M. Jan has suggested that Pliny, in copying from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, has read opoivbg by mistake for opavoc, " moun- 

 tainous," the original meaning being, " Two varieties of saffron, one of them 

 growing on the mountains, the other cultivated;" and this last word being 

 rendered by Pliny " hebes," translated above as meaning " inodorous." 



60 The Acanthus, probably. See B. xxii. c. 34, and B. xxiv. c. 66. 



51 Forskhal speaks of an acanthus in Arabia, the leaves of which are 

 eaten raw. Fee thinks, that these shoots might be eaten without any in- 

 convenience, but doubts if they would make such a tempting morsel us 

 Pliny describes. 6 - Or blue-bell. 



