Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



The phrase of sardonic laughter seems to be a 

 piece of popular etymology. Homer's word for this 

 laughter is aapSdvios, of which the derivation is 

 unknown. The effect of eating our plant is to con- 

 tort the face, and the resemblance between Homer's 

 adjective and the adjective of Sardinia seems to 

 have made the Romans think that the plant must 

 come from that island, though they could have 

 found it in their own ditches. The small yellow 

 flowers do not attract attention. 



Flower, May and June. 



Scilla {Ge. iii. 451). 



In our passage Virgil speaks of the squill, Urginea 

 scilla, as an ingredient in sheep-wash. It is common 

 on Italian coasts, and its large green bulbs are very 

 conspicuous on the mud-heaps between Crotone and 

 the solitary column which remains of the Temple of 

 Hera on the Lacinian promontory. Our own sup- 

 plies of the useful drug are said to come chiefly from 

 Spain. 



Palladius mentions a curious use for the bulb. 

 It was split in two and the halves tied round the 

 cutting of a fig-tree. It seems to have been an early 

 form of what gardeners call ' bottom heat,' but there 

 cannot have been much of it. 



Flower, August to October. 

 Italian name, Scilla. 



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