ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VI. iv. 5-6 



Pine-thistle l has but one kind,, but there are 

 different kinds of safflower, the wild and the culti- 

 vated. Again of the wild kind there are two 

 forms, one very like the cultivated except that the 

 stalk is straighter ; wherefore in ancient times women 

 sometimes used it to make distaffs. 2 It has a fruit 

 which is black large and bitter. The other is leafy, 

 and its stalks are like those of the sow-thistle, 8 so 

 that to some extent it comes to have a prostrate 

 stem ; for on account of the softness of the stalks 4 

 it bends down towards the ground ; and it has a 

 small 5 fruit, which is bearded. All the forms pro- 

 duce abundant seed, 6 but it is larger 7 and more 

 crowded in the wild forms. This kind has also a 

 peculiarity as compared with other wild plants ; these 

 are usually coarser and more spinous than the culti- 

 vated forms, but in this plant the wild form is softer 

 and smoother. 



The akorna resembles in a general way in appear- 

 ance the cultivated safflower, but has a yellowish 

 colour and a sticky juice. 8 There is also a plant 

 called distaff-thistle, which is whiter than these. A 

 peculiarity of the leaf of this is that, if it is stripped 

 off and applied to the flesh, the contact makes the 

 juice blood-coloured, 9 wherefore some call this kind 

 of spinous plant ' blood-wort ' ; also it has an abomin- 

 able smell, like that of blood ; it matures its fruit late, 



: G. h&sfructum amarum (see last note) frequentem 

 barbaeque modo hirsutum gignit: aunt ambo scminosa. W. 

 conj. irctiycavoaiTfpLiaTa 8' erl iraffai, which is not convincing. 

 I have retained the corrupt text and translate in the light 

 of G. 



7 jtieio<Ti : sc. ffTrfp/j.a<n, but ffirfpfj-aTw^eis cannot be right. 



8 x v ^ v a( ld. St. ; om. Aid. ; succo pingui G ; pinyuiore succo 

 Plin. I.e. a cf. 9. 1. 1. Plin. 21. 95. 



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