ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xi. 3-5 



suitable for making a ' cap.' ^ Such then, it is said, 

 is 2 the reed's Avay of growth. 



3 Also it is said to differ from other reeds, to speak 

 generally, in a certain luxuriance of growth, being of 

 a fuller and more fleshy character, and, one may say, 

 ' female ' in appearance. For it is said that even the 

 leaf is broader and whiter, though the plume is 

 smaller than that of other reeds, and some have no 

 plume at all ; these they call ' eunuch-reeds.' From 

 these they say that the best mouthpieces are made, 

 though many are spoiled in the making. 



Till the time of Antigenidas, before which men 

 played the pipe in the simple style, they say that 

 the proper season for cutting the reeds was the 

 month Boedromion * about the rising of Arcturus ; 

 for, although the reed so cut did not become fit for 

 use for many years after and needed a great deal of 

 preliminary placing upon, yet the opening '' of the 

 reed-tongues is well closed, which is a good thing for 

 the purpose of accompaniment.^ But when a change 

 was made to the more elaborate style of playing, the 

 time of cutting the reeds was also altered ; for in 

 our own time they cut them in the months Skirro- 

 ])horion ^ or Hekatombaion ^ about the solstice or a 

 little earlier.^ And they say that the reed becomes 

 lit for use in three years and needs but little 

 preliminary playing ujx)n, and that the reed-tongues 



the body or ' lay ' of the reed mouthpiece : the instrument 

 implied throughout is apparently one Mith a single vibrating 

 ' tongue' (reed) like the modem clarinet. 



* 5jo»tTTjptai' UMV; StoKTopiav Aid. ? irphs rh aKpovtitfiiov, 

 ' for the concert-room ' ; quod trat illis theatrorum nwribus 

 I tilius Plin. I.e. 



' June. * July. 



* Siainp conj. W. ; aiantptl UH.; is a-tpl MVAld. 



