Beta 



were two kinds, of which the red must have been 

 like our beet and the white like our mangel. As 

 a vegetable neither was held in much account. 

 What was most valued was the leaf of the species 

 now called B. cicla. Columella describes this species 

 as having green leaves and a white root. 



Flower, July and August. 

 Italian name, Bietola. 



Buxus. 



' undantem buxo spectare Cytorum ' (Ge. ii. 437). 

 ' torno rasile buxum ' (ib. 449). 



The box (Buxus sempervirens) is a rare native of 

 Italy, as of England, but was largely grown in 

 gardens, and suffered much from the topiary art. 

 Virgil's line seems to imply a preference for it in 

 its natural state, though he knew the woods of 

 Cytorus, a mountain in Paphlagonia, only through 

 his Greek authorities. 



The slow-growing and hard wood is useful for 

 various purposes. Virgil speaks of it as made into 

 a frame for ivory (Ae. x. 136), and into a top 

 (Ae. vii. 382); while the 'buxus Berecyntia matris 

 Idaeae ' {A e. ix. 619) is a musical pipe. The cheapest 

 form of writing tablets was made of boxwood and 

 wax. Dennis mentions an Etruscan wreath of box 

 sprays which was found in a tomb, but the Greek 

 authorities do not seem to refer to box as a coronary 

 tree. 



It seems to have been the box and not, as Virgil 



23 



