BOOK XIII. xLi. I2I-XLIII. 124 



year; they produce a first crop of fruit just at the 

 time when the grapes are beginning to ripen, and a 

 second at the beginning of winter. What sort of fruit 

 is produced on these two occasions is not reported. 



XLII. It may be suitable to have the fennel giant Thefenda 

 mentioned among the exotics and assigned to the l^i^^^^ 

 genus ' tree,* inasmuch as the structure of some 

 plants, in the classification that we shall adopt, has 

 the whole of the wood outside in place of bark and 

 inside, in place of wood, a fungous pith Uke that of 

 the elder, though some have an empty hollow inside 

 Hke reeds. This fennel grows in hot countries over 

 sea; its stalk is divided by knotted joints. It has 

 two varieties," one called in Greek narthex, which 

 rises to some height, the other narthecia, which 

 always grows low. From the joints shoot out very 

 large leaves, the larger the nearer to the ground ; 

 but in other respects it has the same nature as the 

 dill, and the fruit is similar. No shrub suppHes a 

 wood of Hghter weight, and consequently it is easy 

 to carry, and suppHes walking-sticks to be used by 

 old gentlemen.* 



XLIII. Theseedof thefennel giant has been called 

 by some thapsia, but these people are mistaken, since 

 the thapsia,'^ though no doubt it is a giant fennel, is 

 one of a pecuHar kind, having the leaves of a fennel 

 and a hollow stalk not exceeding the length of a 

 walking-stick ; the seed is Hke that of the giant 

 fennel, but the root is white. When an incision is 

 made in the thapsia milk oozes out, and when pounded 

 it emits a sweet juice; even the bark is not thrown 

 away.^ AH these parts of the tree are poisons ; 

 in fact it is injurious even to those engaged in digging 

 it up if the sHghtest current of air blows from the 



171 



