ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, vi. n. s-m. i 



plant divides at the top and has some small branches, 

 on which grow the flower and the fruit. It also 

 bears flowers and fruit on the side-stalks all the way 

 up, like dill. The stalk only lasts a year, and the 

 growth takes place in spring, the leaves growing 

 first and then the stem, as with other plants. It 

 roots deep and has but a single root. Such is the 

 ferula. 



Of the others some to a certain extent resemble 

 ferula, that is, in having a hollow stem l ; for instance 

 deadly nightshade hemlock hellebore asphodel 2 : 

 wTiile some have a stem more or less, as it were, _ * 

 consisting of fibre, 3 as fennel aconite and others like , 

 these. The fruit of deadly nightshade 4 is peculiar 

 in being black and like a grape and like wine in 

 taste. 



Of certain specially important spineless under-shrubs silphium 

 and magydaris belonging to fervla-like plants. 



III. Most important and peculiar in their characters 

 are the silphium and papyrus of Egypt. These too 

 come under the class of ferula-like plants ; of these 

 we have spoken 5 of the papyrus already under the 

 head of plants living in water ; of the other we have 

 now to speak. 



The silphium has a great deal of thick root ; 

 its stalk is like ferula in size, and is nearly as 

 thick ; the leaf, which they call inaspeton, is like 

 celery : it has a broad fruit, which is leaf-like, 



of fiavSpayopas are described : there being only two known 

 species of mandragora, the third may be atropa Belladonna ; 

 and to this plant may also refer an interpolated sentence in 

 Diosc. 4. 73 (&V005 . . . ffraQvXTiv). 



6 4. 8. 3 and 4. Papyrus is loosely classed with ferula-like 

 plants, as it has not a hollow stem. 6 Plin. 19. 42-45. 



'5 



