Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



Cytisus. 

 '^'- ' florentem cytisum ' {Ec. I 78, ii. 64). 

 ■'^' sic cytiso pastae distendant ubera vaccae' {Ec. ix. 31). 

 "■"^ nee cytiso saturantur apes' (Ec. x. 30). 

 'tondentur cytisi' {Ge. ii. 431 ; cf. Ge. iii. 394), 



Virgil's plant (Medicago arborea) is not wild in 

 the Cisalpine, and he probably made his first ac- 

 quaintance with it in the poems of Theocritus. In 

 Sicily it is somewhat common, and Theocritus 

 mentions it as food for goats. The plant, however, 

 is a native of Tuscany, and, as it was evidently con- 

 sidered valuable, it may have been cultivated in 

 Virgil's country. It is a tallish shrub, akin to the 

 clovers. Virgil's epithet seems to imply that as food 

 for goats it is best in the flowering season, which is 

 from May to July. Theophrastus says tl^at it is 

 destructive even to trees, and it seems to have 

 hungry roots. 



The fourth passage suggests that, as cattle and 

 goats are fond of the plant, farmers do well to 

 grow it. 



Flower, May to July. 



[I have never heard and cannot find any Italian 

 name for this plant. The name of citiso has been 

 transferred to the laburnum.] 



DiCTAMNUM. 



' dictamnum . . . puberibus caulem foliis et flore coraan- 

 tem I purpureo ' [Ae. xii. 412). 



Here we have a plant which Virgil can hardly 

 have seen, and whose description he took from 



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