BOOK XIX. XX. 6o-xxti. 63 



depth of three feet, mark it out in plots and border 

 these with sloping rounded banks, and surround 

 each plot with a furrowed path to afford access for a 

 nian and a channel for irrigation. 



XXI. Some plants growing in gardens are vahied Oarden 

 for their bulb, others for their head, others for their ^S'^' 

 stalk, others for their leaf, others for both, othcrs vaiues. 

 for their seed, others for their cartilage, others for 



their flesh, or for both, others for their husk or skin 

 and cartilage, others for their fleshy outer coats. 



XXII. Some plants produce their fruits in the Their 

 earth, others outside as well, others only outside. l^^^re* 

 Some grow lying on the ground, for instance gourds andhabUs. 

 and cucumbers ; these also grow in a hanging position, 

 though they are much heavier even than fruits that 



grow on trees, but the cucumber is composed of 

 cartilage and flesh and the gourd of rind and carti- 

 lage ; the gourd is the only fruit whose rind when 

 ripe changes into a woody substance. Radishes, 

 navews and turnips are hidden in the earth, and so in 

 a different way are elecampane, skirret and parsnips ". 

 Some plants we shall call of the fennel class, for 

 instance dill and mallow * ; for authorities report 

 that in Arabia mallows grow into trecs in seven 

 months, and ser\'e as walking-sticks. There is an 

 instance of a mallow-tree on the estuary of the town 

 of Lixus in Mauretania, the place where the Gardens 

 of the Hesperids are said to have been situated ; it 

 grows 200 vards from the ocean, near a shrine of 

 Hercules which is said to be older than the one at 

 Cadiz ; the tree itself is 20 ft. high, and so hirge 

 round that nobody could span it with his arms. Hemp 

 will also be placed in a similar class. Moreover there 

 are also some plants to which we shall give the name 



461 



