BOOK IX. IV. 3-7 



yews only are excluded as being hurtful. Moreover 4 

 a thousand seeds, which flourish in uncultivated turf 

 or are turned up in the furrow, produce flowers which 

 are much loved by bees, for example shrubs of 

 starwort * in virgin soil, stalks of bear's foot,* stems of 

 asphodel and the sword-like leaf of the narcissus. 

 White lilies sown between the furrows in the garden 

 make a brilliant show and the gilliflowers have no 

 less pure a colour; then there are red and yellow 

 roses and purple violets and sky-blue larkspur ; also 

 the Corycian <= and Sicilian saffron-bulbs are planted 

 to give colour and scent to the honey. Moreover, 5 

 countless herbs of a baser kind spring up on culti- 

 vated land and pasture which supply an abundance 

 of wax for the honey-combs, such as the common 

 charlock and the horse-radish, which is no more 

 precious, the mustard-herb, and flowers of wild 

 endive and black poppy, also the field parsnip, and the 

 cultivated variety which bears the same name and 

 which the Greeks call staphylinos (carrot). But of 6 

 all the plants which I have suggested and of those 

 which I have not mentioned so as to save time (for 

 their number could not be computed), thyme yields 

 honey with the best flavour ; the next best are Greek 

 savory, wild thyme and marjoram. In the third 

 class, but still of high quality, are rosemary and our 

 Italian savory, which I have called satureia. Next 

 the flowers of the tamarisk and the jujube-tree and 

 the other kinds of fodder which I suggested have only 

 a mediocre flavour. The honey which is considered 7 



" Aster amellus. * Acanthus mollis. 



' Corycus was in Cilicia in southern Asia Minor. 



1* habetur c : habentur SAa. 



437 



