BOOK XXI. XXV. 49-.\\vii. 5T 



petals. A wonderful thing about this flovver is that 

 the head bends over, and from the joints grow " 

 curved petals inclosing yellow seed forming a small 

 corolla of several colours. The bellio too is yellow, 

 with fifty-five lozenge-shaped little beards.'' These 

 meadow flowers are used for cliaplets, but most of 

 such flowers are of no use and therefore without 

 nnmes.'^ Nay, these very flowers are differently 

 named bv diffcrent people. 



XX^'^!. The chrysocome (golden rod) or chrysitis chnjso<-oim. 

 Iias no Latin name. It is a palm in height, flowering 

 in chisters of shining gold, with a harsh. tending-to- 

 sweet root, which is dark, and it grows in rocky. 

 shadv places. 



XXV H. Having no\\ nearly exhausted the subject vhapieis. 

 also of the most popular colours, I ought to pass on 

 to those chaplets that please only because of the 

 variety in their make-up. They are of two kinds : 

 some are made of flowers, others of leaves. Among 

 the flowers I woukl include greenweed — for the 

 vellow blossom of this too is gathered — also the 

 oleander, and the jujubes of the kind called Cap- 

 padocian, having a scent Hke that of olive flowers. 

 Among brambles grows the cyclamen, about which 

 I shall say more elsewhere.** Its flower, Colossae 

 purple in colour, is used to make up chaplets. 



" I have adopted Maj'hoff's reading with no confidence, for 

 it givos a diflficult sense, as does Detlefsen's. Nonnisi retorto 

 wouk) mean " only when it becomes straight again." 



'^ This scntonce is a rcal puzzle. The bellio was a kind of 

 daisy, but the nicaning of pastillicantibus and barbulis (the 

 formcr aTra^ Acydfiei^oi') is not cloar. 



' Dotlefscn's reading could be kcpt with ut before plerique 

 and a comma at vsu. 



" SeeXXV. §§ 114 fiF. 



197 



