Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



places.' In a wild state celery is rank, coarse, and 

 unwholesome ; but it has been much improved by 

 cultivation, and the bitterness, to which Virgil 

 refers, is annulled by blanching the leaf-stems. For 

 this purpose we earth it up, but Columella and 

 Palladius recommend the use of a ' cylindrus,' which 

 in this context clearly means a sea-kale pot or some- 

 thing like it. 



The leaves were used in garlands and chaplets. 

 An Italian scholar has in his possession a wreath 

 taken from the heart of a mummy made in the 

 fifteenth century B.C. It is composed of alternating 

 leaves of celery and buds of the blue water-lily of 

 the Nile. 



Theophrastus refers to what seem to be cultivated 

 varieties, and regards the plant as an effective 

 remedy for the stone. 



Flower, June. 

 Italian name, Sedano. 



Arbutus. 



' arbutus horrida' (Ge. ii. 69). 

 ■- ' vos rara viridis tegit arbutus umbra ' (Ec. vii. 46. Cf. 

 Ec. iii. 82 ; Ge. i. 148 ; ii. 69, 520 ; iii. 301 ; iv. 181). 



The arbute (Arbutus unedo) is a tree of the 

 Mediterranean region, which extends northwards 

 to Killarney. It is called the strawberry-tree from 

 a superficial resemblance in the scarlet fruit, called 

 by Lucretius ' puniceus ' ; but the tubercles on the 

 surface are not, as in the strawberry, the seeds. 



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