22 
8 
0) Pars 2 . 
c. i. 
(b) Rarior.' 
PI. lib. 2. 
c. iS. . 
(c) Lib. de 
Ealf. 
_ Of Arborefcent Plantr. Part II 
Tlie ROOT of the Egyptian ARUM. Defcnbed by 
Fabim Columna, (a) with the Name of Arum /Egypt iacum: 
but called by Alpinus, ( b) Colocafia Strogulorhi^a f. rotunda 
Rad ice 3 not rightly, as Columna notes. Nor do either of 
their Defcriptions well reach it. 
This here ( as it is often) is a double Root 3 each of 
them round, and fomewhat Hat. The uppermoft like 
tne dry d Root of Arum , white and friable 5 but die Taft 
is extinct. Full and frim, in breadth or tranfverjly , two 
inches 3 encompafted with three or four very fmall Circles 
whereupon fevcral Leaves did once grow: underneath are 
the portions of feveral fmall dead Stalks 3 on the ’top 
and tides, the Buds o t others to come. To this, by a Tort 
Neck between, hangs the lower 3 which being alfo the 
elder, is more fuzzy and ihrunk up. 
This Defcnption cannot be underltood, without know¬ 
ing which is very obfervable of this, and a great 
number ot other Plants 5 and whereunto, no one Bltanick 
hath adverted: That the Root is annually repaired 
or renewed out of the Stalk it felf. Particularly, of this 
11ant, that one of its two Roots doth every year penlh, the 
other is new made- not out of the other Root before it 
penlhes,but out of the Stalk it felf. The Stalk defeendin- by 
fuch degrees, as that part thereof which, the laft year, was 
thelowermoft above ground 5 this year, being funk ( or 
rather by the appendent ftrings pulled) under ground 
becomes the upper Root 3 the next year, the under Root • 
and the year after, rots off 3 another new Root being ftilj 
yearly made out of the Stalk.' By which way, and not as 
I ices by the fame numerical Root, this and other like 
Plants are perennial. 
This Root, the Egyptians eat very greedily, both raw 
ooil d, and all manner of ways 3 fuppoling them, pravalnie 
excitare venerem. The Roots of the common Arum boil’d, 
i C !, C ^ ret °f°re eaten among the Greeks : and may talk as 
well as boil’d Onions. 
A pair of large GINGER ROOTS 3 one of which,when 
green, might weigh four or five ounces. And is faid to be 
ctug up, fometimes, of fourteen Ounces. The Plant un¬ 
certainly defcrib’d. Acofia compares it to that call’d La- 
chryma jobi 5 Lobelias, ( c ) ro a Reed 3 Garcias, to a Flan ■ 
and 
