ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VII. xm. 6-8 



perishes with the stem, and when it has withered, 

 then the plant puts up its leaves. 



These two plants then, as compared with the 

 other bulbous plants are peculiar ; and, as compared 

 with those which bloom before the leaves and stems 

 appear (as the autumn squill 1 seems to do, and other 

 plants with conspicuous flowers, as well as, among 

 trees, the almond especially, if not alone), there is 

 the distinction that, while these two put forth their 

 leaves along with the flowers or 2 immediately after- 

 wards (so that about some the matter is uncertain) 

 in 3 the case of these two the flower appears, as it 

 were, from a different starting-point, there being a 

 considerable number of days in between, and the 

 growth of the leaves not beginning till, 4 in the case 

 of one of them, the flower, and in the case of the 

 other, the whole stem has withered. Squill produces 

 its leaves before the flower, narcissus afterwards ; 

 but the latter produces much more abundant foliage, 

 and the individual 5 root is small 6 rather than large, 

 resembling purse-tassels in shape, except that it is 

 not formed of scales. 7 About these matters then 

 there is doubt. 



Of purse-tassels it is plain that there are several 

 kinds ; for they differ in size colour shape and 

 taste. 8 In some places they are so sweet as to be 

 eaten raw, as in the Tauric Chersonese. But the 

 greatest and most distinct difference is shown by the 

 ' wool-bearing 9 ' purse-tassels ; for there is such a 

 kind, and it grows on 10 the sea-shore, and has the 

 wool beneath the outer tunic, so that it is between 



7 ou A.e7ripiw5rjs conj. Sell, from G, non squamata ; ov8* 

 TrvpcaS-r] UMAld. ; ov AeTrupoiSrjs H. 



8 Plin. 19. 95 ; Athen. 2. 64. 



9 Plin. 19. 32. See Index. 10 lv after ^v add. W. 



133 



