ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. x. 4-6 



and it is used as a soap-powder. ^ It is something 

 like a cake, soft and reddish. Moreover the ' female ' 

 plant both of phleos and sedge is barren, but useful 

 for basket-work,- while the ' male ' is useless. 



Duckweed ' moon-flower ' and marestail require 

 further investigation. 



Most peculiar of these plants is the bulrush, both 

 in being leafless and in not having so many roots as 

 the others ; for the others tend downwards quite as 

 much as upwards, and shew their strength in that 

 direction ; and especially is this true of galingale, and 

 ilso of dog's-tooth grass ; wherefore these plants 

 too and all others like them are hard to destroy. 

 The root of galingale exceeds all the others in the 

 diversity of characters which it shews, in that part 

 of it is stout and fleshy, part slender and woody. 

 So also is this plant peculiar in its way of shooting 

 and originating; for from the trunk-like stock -^ 

 »rows another slender root* sideways, and on this 

 again forms the fleshy part which contains the shoot 

 from which the stalk springs.^ In like manner it 

 also sends out roots downwards ; wherefore of all 

 plants it is hardest to kill, and troublesome to get 

 rid of. 



(Dog's-tooth grass grows in almost the same way 

 from the joints ; for the roots are jointed, and from 

 each joint it sends a shoot upwards and a root down- 

 wards. The growth of the spinous plant called 

 oorn-thistle ^ is similar, but it is not reedy and its 



■2 c/. Hdt. 3. 98. ' i.e. rhizome. 



* i.e. stolon ; cf. \. 6. 8. 



* i^' ol 6 KuvKos transposed by W. ; in Aid. these words 

 oome before 4v ^. 



' ij aKavdSTfS I conj. ; Keafayos UMV; Kfdvindos Aid.: ^ 

 ifdymdos most edd. ; G omits the word. 



