ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VII. xi. 4 -xii. 2 



about these plants ; now we must endeavour, as was 

 said/ to set forth the special points of the other 

 classes in like manner. 



Of herbs which have fleshy or bulbous roots. 



XII. z There is a large class of these which have 

 fleshy or bulbous roots : these exhibit differences both 

 as compared with other plants and with one another 

 both in roots leaves stems and their other prominent 

 features. 3 Of the roots, as has been said 4 already, 

 some are in layers, some fleshy, some have a 'bark,' 

 some not ; and again some are round, some oblong, 

 some edible and some not fit for food. Among 

 edible roots are not only purse-tassels and others 

 which resemble them, but also the roots of asphodel 

 and squill, though not of all kinds of the latter, but 

 only of the kind called 'Epimenides' squill (French 

 sparrow-grass) which gets its name from its use 5 ; 

 this kind has narrower leaves and is smoother than 

 the others. 



6 The root of cuckoo-pint is also edible, and so are 

 the leaves, if they are first boiled down in vinegar ; 

 they are sweet, and are good for fractures. To 

 increase the root, having first stripped 7 off the leaves 

 (and the leaf is very large), they dig 8 it up and 

 invert 9 it in order that it may not shoot, 10 but may 

 draw all the nourishment into itself. This some 



6 Plin. 19. 96 ; 24. 162. 



7 a.iTo<pv\\(<rwffiv conj. Sch.; avo^vXaa-ffoxriv U; airo<j)v\\dff- 

 ffwfftv MAld. 



8 avopvavTfs conj. St.; & avopv^avres Aid. 



9 cf. 1. 6. 10; Plin. 19. 94 and 97, who seems to have read 

 KaTopu|avTes : so also G. ? ' they plunge it in a pit.' 



10 Sia0\affrAvy : cf. G.P. 4. 8. 1. 



125 



