ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VII. xu. 2-xm. 2 



do also with purse-tassels, when they lay them by. 1 

 2 However the root of edder-wort (for a kind of 

 cuckoo-pint is so called because of its variegated stem) 

 is not good for food, but is used for drugs. 



But the root of the plant called corn-flag is sweet, 

 and, if cooked and pounded up and mixed with the 

 flour, makes the bread sweet and wholesome. It is 

 round and without ' bark,' and has small offsets like 

 the long onion. Many of them are found in moles' 

 runs 3 ; for this animal likes them and collects them. 



4 The root of theseion is bitter to the taste, but 

 when pounded purges the bowels. There are also 

 certain others of these roots which have medicinal 

 properties, but of many the roots are neither 

 medicinal nor edible. Such are the differences in 

 the roots. 



XIII. 5 In the leaves the differences are in size and 

 shape. Asphodel has a long leaf, which is somewhat 

 narrow and tough, while that of squill is broad and 

 tears easily ; corn-flag, which is called by some 

 xiphos (' sword '), has a sword-like leaf, whence its 

 name, and iris one more like a reed. That of cuckoo- 

 pint, in addition to being broad, is concave and like 

 that of cucumber ; that of the narcissus is narrow 

 substantial and glossy, those of purse-tassels and 

 plants of that character are quite narrow, and that of 

 crocus narrower still. 



6 Some have not a stem at all, nor a flower, as the 

 edible cuckoo-pint ; some have only the flower-stem, 

 as narcissus and crocus ; some however have a stem, 

 as squill purse-tassels iris and corn-flag ; but asphodel 



3 irapa TCUS <TKa\oiria.'is conj. Sch. ; tv rais OK. conj.W.; rats 

 * KO \olais UMAld. 4 Plin. 22. 06. 8 PJin. 21. 108. 

 6 Plin. 21. 108 and 109. 



127 



