Chap. 62.] THE PEKDICIUM. 357 



CHAP. 61. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF EARED PLANTS I THE STAN- 

 TOPS ; THE ALOPECFKOS J TEE STELEPHUEOS, ORTYX, OR PLAN- 

 TAGO J THE THRYALLIS. 



The eared 97 plants form another variety : among them we 

 find the cynops, 98 the alopecuros, 99 the stelephuros, 1 also 

 known to some persons as the ortyx, 2 and to others as the 

 plantago, of which last we shall have occasion 2 * to speak more 

 at length among the medicinal plants, and the thryallis. 3 

 The alopecuros, among these, has a soft ear and a thick down, 

 not unlike a fox's tail in fact, to which resemblance it owes 

 its name. The plant most like 4 it is the stelephuros, were it 

 not that it blossoms only a little at a time. In the cidhorium 

 and similar plants, the leaves are near the ground, the buds 

 springing from the root just after the rising of the Yergilise. 5 



CHAP. 62 THE PERDICITJM. THE ORNITHOGALE. 



It is not in Egypt only that the perdicium 6 is eaten ; it owes 

 its name to the partridge, 7 which bird is extremely fond of 

 digging it up. The roots of it are thick and very numerous : 

 and so, too, with the ornithogale, 8 which has a tender white 

 stalk, and a root half a foot in thickness, bulbous, soft, and 



97 "Spicatae." 



98 Fee is in doubt whether to identify it with the Plantago cynops of 

 the south of Europe, and the banks of the Rhine. 



99 " Foxtail." According to Dalechamps, it is the Saccharum cylindricum, 

 the Lagurus of Linnaeus ; but Fee expresses his doubts as to their identity. 



1 Fee inclines to think that it may be the Secale villosum of Linnaeus ; 

 though the more recent commentators identify it with the Plantago an- 

 gustifolia. The Saccharum Ravennee has been suggested. 



2 Or " quail." 2 * In B. xxv. c. 39. 



3 Hardouin takes this to be our pimpernel, the Sanguisorba officinalis 

 of Linnaeus. Sprengel inclines to the Verbascum lychnitis of Linnaeus. 



4 " Proxuma." 5 See B. xviii. c. 66. 



6 Supposed by most commentators to be the Parietaria officinalis of 

 Linnaeus ; Wall pellitory or parietary. Some, however, have suggested 

 the Polygonum maritimum, or the Polygonum divaricatum of Linnaeus. 

 Fee expresses doubts as to its identity, but remarks that the modern Greek 

 name of pellitory is " perdikaki." See c. 104 of this Book, and B. xxii. 

 c. 20. 



7 " Perdix," the Greek name. 



8 Probably the Ornithogalum umbellatum of Linnaeus. Sprengel iden- 

 tifies it with the Ornithogalum natans : but that variety is not found in 

 Greece, while the other is. 



