Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



Hemlock is found throughout Italy and Sicily. 

 In a luxuriant state its stems would be too large for 

 a pan-pipe, but the smaller stems were of the right 

 size. Technically cicnta came to mean the piece 

 of stem between two joints of reed. 



The plant is sometimes six feet high, and may 

 usually be recognized through the purple blotches 

 on the smooth stem. 



Flower, June and July. 

 Italian name, Cicuta. 



Colocasium. 



' tellus | mixta . . . ridenti colocasia fundet acantho ' 



(Ec. iv. 20). 



The caladiums, as our gardeners call them, of 

 which Virgil's species is Colocasia antiquorum, the 

 Indian taro, are akin to the arum or ' lords and 

 ladies ' of our woodlands. In Virgil's time they 

 were grown in Egypt, and the esculent roots im- 

 ported to Rome. They are not very good eating, 

 and Dioscorides recommends boiling them to make 

 them less sharp to the palate. According to Pliny, 

 the large leaves were made into the drinking cups 

 which Horace and Didymus call ' ciboria.' In later 

 days the plant was introduced into Italy, but, except 

 in the extreme south, it had to be protected with 

 mats against hard weather. In Sicily it has estab- 

 lished itself by the sides of streams. 



Some of the American caladiums appear in state 

 at the Royal Horticultural Society's shows, and have 



32 



