ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VI. vi. 8-10 



germinates and produces a fresh plant, but of 

 smaller size ; the plant also produces a sort of 

 tear-like exudation, which men also plant, as we 

 have said. 1 



The narcissus 2 or leirion (for some call it by the 

 one name, some by the other) has its ground-leaves 

 like those of the asphodel,, 3 but much broader, 

 like those of the krinon (lily) ; its stem is leafless 

 and grass-green 4 and bears the flower at the top ; 

 the fruit 5 is in a kind of membrane-like vessel, 

 and is very large, black in colour, and oblong in 

 shape. This as it falls germinates of its own accord ; 

 however men collect and set 6 the seed, and also 

 plant the root, which is fleshy round and large. The 

 plant blooms very late, 7 after the setting of Arcturus 

 about the equinox. 



8 The saffron-crocus is herbaceous in character, Rke 

 the above-mentioned plants, 9 but has a narrow leaf; 

 indeed the leaves are, as it were, hair-like ; it 

 blooms very late, and grows either late or early, 

 according as one looks at the season 10 ; for it blooms 

 after 11 the rising of the Pleiad and only for a few 

 days. It pushes up the flower at once with the 

 leaf, or even seems to do so earlier. The root 12 

 is large and fleshy, and the whole plant vigorous ; 

 it loves even to be trodden on and grows fairer 

 when the root is crushed into the ground by the 



5 Kapirbv omitted in MSS.; add. Dalec. from Diosc. 4. 158. 

 B irriyvvovffi : cf. 7. 4. 3 n. 



7 cf. C.P. 1. 10. 5 ; Plin. I.e. (a much confused passage). 



8 Plin. 21. 31-34. 



9 Sc. wpiVoj/ and vdpKurcros ; cf. 6. 6. 8 n. 



10 i.e. whether at the end of one season or the beginning of 

 the next. cf. C.P. 1. 10. 5. Xapfrdvoi U ; Xa/jLpdvei Aid. 

 add. W. 12 cf. 7. 9. 4. 



43 



