BOOK XIX. xwviii. 125-128 



often made ot" them ; these plants have leaves rather 

 larger than those of the green garden-lettuce, and 

 extremely narrow, the nutriment being apparentlv 

 used up elsewhere ; the second kind has a round 

 stalk, and the third is a squat-growing plant, called 

 the Spartan lettuce. Other people have classified 

 lettuces by colour and season of sowing, saying that 

 the black lettuce is the kind sown in January, the 

 white in March and the red in April, and that all 

 of these kinds can be transphinted at the end of two 

 months. More precise authorities make a larger 

 number of varieties, the purple, the crinkly, the 

 Cappadocian, the Greek— the last with a smoother 

 leaf and a broad stalk, and in addition the lettuce 

 ■with a long and narrow leaf, which resembles 

 endive ; while the worst kind of all has been given 

 the name in Greek of bitter lettuce,in condemnation 

 of its bitter taste. There is moreover another 

 variety of white lettuce the Greek name for which 

 is poppy-lettuce, from its abundance of juice with 

 a soporific property, although all the lettuces are 

 beUeved to bring sleep ; this was the only kind of 

 lettuce in Italy in early times, which accounts for 

 the Latin name for lettuce, derived from the Latin 

 for milk. A purple lettuce \vith a very large root 

 is called CaeciUus's lettuce," while a round one 

 with a very small root and broad leaves is called 

 in Greek the anti-aphrodisiac, or otherwise the 

 eunuch's lettuce, because this kind is an extremely 

 potent check to amorous propensities. Indeed they 

 all have a cooling quality, and consecjuently are 

 acceptable in summer. They relieve the stomach of 

 distaste for food and prornotc appetite. At all 

 events it is stated that the late lamented Augustus in 



503 



