Chapter 543

1860Or “money-changer,” “argentarius.”

1861“E pergulâ suâ.” Scaliger thinks that the “pergula” was a part of a house built out into the street, while, according to Ernesti, it was a little room in the upper part of a house. In B. xxxv. c. 36, it clearly means a room on the ground-floor.

1862In the Fora of ancient cities there was frequently a statue of this mythological personage, with one hand erect, in token, Servius says (on B. iv. l. 58 of the Æneid), of the freedom of the state, Marsyas having been the minister of Bacchus, the god of liberty. His statue in the Forum of Rome was the place of assembly for the courtesans of that city, who used to crown it with chaplets of flowers. See also Horace i. Sat. 6. l. 120; Juvenal, Sat. 9. l. 1 and 2; and Martial, ii. Ep. 64. l. 7.

1863Cujacius thinks that Pliny has in view here Polemon of Athens, who when a young man, in his drunken revelry, burst into the school of Xenocrates, the philosopher, with his fellow-revellers, wearing his festive garland on his head. Being arrested, however, by the discourse, he stopped to listen, and at length, tearing off the garland, determined to enter on a more abstemious course of life. Becoming an ardent disciple of Xenocrates, he ultimately succeeded him at the head of the school. The passage as given in the text, from its apparent incompleteness, would appear to be in a mutilated state.

1864Julia. See B. vii. c. 46.

1865Thus acknowledging herself to be no better than a common courtesan.

1866“Illius dei.”

1867See B. vii. c. 10.

1868“Funus elocavit.”

1869“E prospectu omni.” “From every look-out:”i. e.from the roofs, doors, and windows.

1870This usage is still observed in theimmortelles, laid on the tombs of departed friends, in Catholic countries on the continent. Tibullus alludes to it, B. ii. El. 4:“Atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores,Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo.”

1870This usage is still observed in theimmortelles, laid on the tombs of departed friends, in Catholic countries on the continent. Tibullus alludes to it, B. ii. El. 4:

“Atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores,Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo.”

“Atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores,

Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo.”

1871At the conclusion of the festival of Mars on the 1st of March, and for several successive days. These entertainments were celebrated in the Temple of that god, and were proverbial for their excellence.

1872It is a well-known fact, as Fée remarks, that the smell of flowers is productive, in some persons, of head-ache, nausea, and vertigo. He states also that persons have been known to meet their death from sleeping all night in the midst of odoriferous flowers.

1873“Ipsaque capiti imposita.” Holland and Ajasson render this as though Cleopatra placed the garland on Antony’s head, and not her own. Littré agrees with the translation here adopted.

1874Fée remarks that we know of no poisons, hydrocyanic or prussic acid excepted, so instantaneous in their effects as this; and that it is very doubtful if they were acquainted with that poison.

1875Hist. Plant. B. vi. cc. 6, 7.

1876“Persecutus est.”

1877A characteristic, it would appear, of the greater part of the information already given in this Book.

1878He alludes to the wild rose or eglantine. See B. xvi. c. 71.

1879“Granoso cortice.”

1880Boxes of a pyramidal shape. See B. ix. c. 56.

1881Still, even for that purpose the rose was very extensively used. One ancient author states that, even in the middle of winter, the more luxurious Romans were not satisfied without roses swimming in their Falernian wine; and we find Horace repeatedly alluding to the chaplets of roses worn by the guests at banquets. Hence probably arose the expression, “Under the rose.” Fée is evidently mistaken in thinking that Pliny implies here, that it was but rarely used in chaplets.

1882Il. xxiii. l. 186.

1883B. xiii. c. 2.

1884“Collyriis.”

1885Clusius was of opinion that this was the Provence rose, the Rosa Gallica of Linnæus.

1886The same rose, probably, of which Virgil says, Georg. B. iv. l. 119, “Biferique rosaria Pæsti”—“And the rose-beds of Pæstum, that bear twice in the year.” It has been suggested that it is identical with the Rosa alba vulgaris major of Bauhin, the Rosa alba of Decandolle: but, as Fée says, it is very questionable if this is correct, this white rose blossoming but once a year.

1887A simple variety of the Rosa Gallica of Linnæus, Fée thinks.

1888See B. iv. c. 14. According to J. Bauhin, this is the pale, flesh-coloured rose, called the “rose of France,”—the “Rosa rubello flore, majore, pleno, incarnata vulgo.” Others, again, take it to be the Damascus rose.

1889See B. v. c. 29. A variety of the white rose, Fée thinks, the determination of which must be sought among the Eglantines.

1890“Spiniola.” A variety belonging to or approaching the Eglantine in all probability. Fée makes mention here of a kind called the Rosa myriacantha by Decandolle (the “thousand-thorn rose”), which is found in great abundance in the south of Europe, and other parts of it.

1891Fée remarks on this passage, that the beauty of the flower and the number of the petals are always in an inverse proportion to the number of thorns, which disappear successively the more carefully the plant is cultivated.

1892This is most probably the meaning of “Asperitate, levore.”

1893Still known as the “Rosa centifolia.” Its petals sometimes exceedthreehundred in number; and it is the most esteemed of all for its fragrant smell.

1894“Non suæ terræ proventu.”

1895This rose is mentioned also by Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 6. From the description that Pliny gives of it, Fée is inclined to think that it is some variety of the Rosa rubrifolia, which is often found in mountainous localities.

1896This assertion is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 6. Fée remarks that there is no truth in it. It is not improbable, however, that the word “cortex” here may mean, not the calyx, but the bark of the stem, in reference to its exemption from thorns. Theτραχὺ τὸ κάτωof Theophrastus would seem to admit of that rendering. See Note1891above.

1897“Extremas velut ad cardines.”

1898This is not the case with the Rosa centifolia of modern botany. See Note1893above. It is not improbable, however, that the reading is “probabilis,” and that this passage belongs to the next sentence.

1899The Lychnis, Fée remarks, is erroneously classed by Pliny among the roses. It is generally agreed among naturalists that it is the garden flower, the Agrostemma coronaria of Linnæus; which, however, does not grow in humid soils, but in steep, rocky places.

1900Or “small Greek” rose. Some commentators have identified it with the Rosa silvestris, odorata, flore albo of C. Bauhin, a wild white rose.

1901Sillig thinks that this may mean the “Macedonian” rose. Another reading is “moscheuton.” Fée says that it is not a rose at all, but one of the Malvaceæ belonging to the genus Alcæa; one variety of which is called the Alcæa rosa.

1902Or “little chaplet.” Possibly a variety of the Eglantine, the Rosa canina or dog-rose, Fée suggests.

1903The Eglantine.

1904This seems to be the meaning of “tot modis adulteratur:” the roses without smell appearing to him to be notgenuineroses.

1905The Rosa Damascena of Miller, Fée thinks, our Damascus rose.

1906The earliest rose in France and Spain, Fée says, is the “pompon,” the variety Pomponæa of the Rosa centifolia.

1907This is consistent with modern experience.

1908From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 6. The rose is but very rarely reproduced from seed.

1909See B. xvi. c. 67, and B. xvii. c. 33.

1910Previously mentioned in this Chapter. The meaning of this passage, however, is extremely doubtful. “Unum genus inseritur pallidæ, spinosæ, longissimis virgis, quinquifoliæ, quæ Græcis altera est.”

1911If the water was only lukewarm, Fée says, it would be of no use, and if hotter, the speedy death of the tree would be the result.

1912“Quâdam cognatione.” He alludes to a maceration of the petals of the rose and lily in oil. The aroma of the lily, Fée says, has not been fixed by any method yet found.

1913See B. xiii. c. 2.

1914The Lilium candidum of Linnæus. Fée remarks that the “Lilium” of the Romans and theλείριονof the Greeks is evidently derived from thelalehof the Persians.

1915“Calathi.” The “calathus” was a work-basket of tapering shape; it was also used for carrying fruits and flowers, Ovid, Art. Am. ii. 264. Cups, too, for wine were called by this name, Virg. Ecl. v. 71.

1916As this passage has been somewhat amplified in the translation, it will perhaps be as well to insert it: “Resupinis per ambitum labris, tenuique pilo et staminum stantibus in medio crocis.”

1917The Convolvulus sæpium of modern botany; the only resemblance in which to the lily is in the colour, it being totally different in every other respect.

1918“Rudimentum.” She must have set to work in a very roundabout way, Fée thinks, and one in which it would be quite impossible for a naturalist to follow her.

1919The white lily is reproduced from the offsets of the bulbs; and, as Fée justly remarks, it is highly absurd to compare the mode of cultivation with that of the rose, which is propagated from slips.

1920This absurd notion is derived from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ii. c. 2, and B. vi. c. 6.

1921See B. xix. c.48.

1922The root really consists of certain fine fibres, to which the bulbs, or rather cloves or offsets, are attached.

1923Judging from what Theocritus says, in his 35th Idyl, the “crinon” would appear to have been a white lily. Sprengel, however, takes the red lily of Pliny to be the scarlet lily, the Lilium Chalcedonicum of Linnæus.

1924Or “dog-rose:” name now given to one of the wild roses.

1925See B. xiii. c. 9.

1926Fée remarks, that it is singular that Pliny, as also Virgil, Ecl. v. l. 38, should have given the epithet “purpureus” to the Narcissus. It is owing, Fée says, to the red nectary of the flower, which is also bordered with a very bright red.

1927Into cloves or offsets.

1928The Narcissus poeticus of Linnæus. Pliny gives the origin of its name in c. 75 of this Book.

1929Though supported by Theophrastus, this assertion is quite erroneous. In France, even, Fée says, the Narcissus poeticus blossoms at the end of April, and sooner, probably, in the climates of Greece and Italy.

1930See B. xviii. c.76. It is just possible that Pliny and Theophrastus may be speaking of the Narcissus scrotinus of Linnæus, which is found in great abundance in the southern provinces of Naples, and is undoubtedly the flower alluded to by Virgil in the words, “Nec sera comantem Narcissum,” Georg. iv. ll. 122, 123.

1931Fée remarks, that the extravagant proceeding here described by Pliny with a seriousness that is perfectly ridiculous, does not merit any discussion.

1932When detached from the bulb, the stem of the lily will infallibly die.

1933“Nudantibus se nodulis.” There are no such knots in the lily, as Fée remarks.

1934The Viola odorata of Linnæus.

1935The Greek name.

1936“Ianthina vestis,” violet-coloured.

1937Desfontaines identifies this with the Cheiranthus Cheiri; but Fée says that there is little doubt that it belongs to the Viola tricolor herbensis (pansy, or heart’s-ease), in the petals of which the yellow predominates, and the type of which is the field violet, or Viola arvensis, the flowers of which are extremely small, and entirely yellow.

1938This has been identified with the Cheiranthus incanus, the Cheiranthus tricuspidatus of the shores of the Mediterranean, the Hesperis maritima of Linnæus; also, by some commentators, with the Campanula Medium of Linnæus.

1939So called, according to Pintianus and Salmasius, from Calatia, a town of Italy. Fée adopts the reading “Calathiana,” and considers it to have received that name from its resemblance to the Caltha mentioned in the next Chapter. Dalechamps identifies it with the Digitalis purpurea; Gessner, Dodonæus, and Thalius, with the Gentiana pneumonanthe, others with the Gentiana ciliata and Pannonica, and Sprengel with the Gentiana verna of Linnæus. Fée admits himself totally at a loss on the subject.

1940“Concolori amplitudine.” Gronovius, with considerable justice, expresses himself at a loss as to the exact meaning of these words. If Sprengel and Salmasius are right in their conjectures that the Caltha of Pliny and Virgil is the marigold, our Calendula officinalis, the passage cannot mean that the flower of it is of the same size and colour with any variety of the violet mentioned in the preceding Chapter. From the description given of it by Dioscorides, it is more than probable that the Caltha of the ancients is not the marigold, and Hardouin is probably right in his conjecture that Pliny intends to describe a variety of the violet under the name. Fée is at a loss as to its identification.

1941Or “royal broom.” Sprengel thinks that this is the Chenopodium scoparia, a plant common in Greece and Italy; and Fée is inclined to coincide with that opinion, though, as he says, there are numerous other plants with odoriferous leaves and pliant shoots, as its name, broom, would seem to imply. Other writers would identify it with a Sideritis, and others, again, with an Achillæa.

1942See B. xii. c. 26. Fée is inclined to coincide with Ruellius, and to identify this with the Digitalis purpurea, clown’s spikenard, or our Lady’s gloves. The only strong objection to this is the fact that the root of the digitalis has a very faint but disagreeable smell, and not at all like that of cinnamon. But then, as Fée says, we have no positive proof that the “cinnamomum” of the ancients is identical with our cinnamon. See Vol. iii. p. 138. Sprengel takes the “bacchar” of Virgil to be the Valeriana Celtica, and the “baccharis” of the Greeks to be the Gnaphalium sanguineum, a plant of Egypt and Palestine. The bacchar has been also identified with the Asperula odorata of Linnæus, the Geum urbanum of Linnæus (the root of which has the smell of cloves), the Inula Vaillantii, the Salvia Sclarea, and many other plants.

1943“Barbaricam.” Everything that was not indigenous to the territory of Rome, was “barbarum,” or “barbaricum.”

1944Cæsalpinus says that this is a rushy plant, called, in Tuscany, Herba luziola; but Fée is quite at a loss for its identification.

1945Sillig is most probably right in his surmise that there is an hiatus here.

1946In B. xii. c. 27. Asarum Europæum, or foal-foot.

1947Probably meaning that it comes fromἀ, “not,” andσαίρω, “to adorn.”

1948Or Crocus, the Crocus sativus of Linnæus, from the prepared stigmata of which the saffron of commerce is made. It is still found growing wild on the mountains in the vicinity of Athens, and is extensively cultivated in many parts of Europe.

1949“Degenerans ubique.” Judging from what he states below, he may possibly mean, if grown repeatedly on the same soil.

1950He may allude either to the city of Phlegra of Macedonia, or to the Phlegræan Plains in Campania, which were remarkable for their fertility. Virgil speaks of the saffron of Mount Tmolus in Cilicia.

1951It is very extensively adulterated with the petals of the marigold, as also the Carthamus tinctorius, safflower, or bastard saffron.

1952This is the case; for when it is brittle it shows that it has not been adulterated with water, to add to its weight.

1953Perhaps the reading here, “Cum sit in medio candidum,” is preferable; “because it is white in the middle.”

1954“White throughout.”

1955He contradicts himself here; for in c. 79 of this Book, he says that chaplets of saffron are good for dispelling the fumes of wine.

1956“Ad theatra replenda.” It was the custom to discharge saffron-water over the theatres with pipes, and sometimes the saffron was mixed with wine for the purpose. It was discharged through pipes of very minute bore, so that it fell upon the spectators in the form of the finest dust. See Lucretius, B. ii. l. 416; Lucan, Phars. ix. l. 808-810; and Seneca, Epist. 92.

1957It flowers so rapidly, in fact, that it is difficult to avoid the loss of a part of the harvest.

1958The whole of this passage is from Theophrastus, De Odorib.

1959This statement, though borrowed from Theophrastus, is not consistent with fact. The root of saffron is not more long-lived than any other bulbs of the Liliaceæ.

1960Because, Dalechamps says, all the juices are thereby thrown back into the root, which consequently bears a stronger flower the next year.

1961Il. xiv. l. 348.

1962see B. xiii. c. 32.

1963All these statements as to the odours of various substances, are from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. vi. c. 22.

1964He doesnotsay, however, that it is but rarely that a bitter substance is not odoriferous; a sense in which Fée seems to have understood him, as he says, “This assertion is not true in general, and there are numerous exceptions; for instance, quassia wood, which is inodorous and yet intensely bitter.” The essential oil, he remarks, elaborated in the tissue of the corolla, is the ordinary source of the emanations of the flower.

1965Fée remarks that cultivation gives to plants a softer and more aqueous consistency, which is consequently injurious to the developement of the essential oil.

1966Theophrastus, from whom this is borrowed, might have said with more justice, Fée remarks, that certain roses have more odour when dried than when fresh gathered. Such is the case, he says, with the Provence rose. Fresh roses, however, have a more pronounced smell, the nearer they are to the olfactory organs.

1967This is by no means invariably the case: in fact, the smell of most odoriferous plants is most powerful in summer.

1968Because the essential oils evaporate more rapidly.

1969With Littré, we adopt the reading “ætate,” “mid-age,” and not “æstate,” “midsummer,” for although the assertion would be in general correct, Pliny would contradict the statement just made, that all plants have a more penetrating odour in spring. This reading is supported also by the text of Theophrastus.

1970Or saffron.

1971This is a just observation, but the instances might be greatly extended, as Fée says.

1972See B. xviii. c.39.

1973The white lily and the red lily. See c.11of this Book.

1974As to the Abrotonum, see B. xiii. c. 2, and c.34of this Book.

1975See c.35of this Book.

1976Or in other words, the interior of the petals has a more bitter flavour than that of the exterior surface.

1977Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus. De Causis, B. vi. c. 25. That author is speaking not of the flower, but of the rainbow, under the name of “iris.” Pliny has himself made a similar statement as to the rainbow, in B. xii. c. 52, which he would appear here to have forgotten.

1978The Cheiranthus tristis of Linnæus, or sad gilliflower, Fée thinks.

1979See B. viii. c. 23. Pliny did not know of the existence of the musk-deer, the Muschus moschiferus of Eastern Asia: and he seems not to have thought of the civet, (if, indeed, it was known to him) the fox, the weasel, and the polecat, the exhalations from which have a peculiar smell. The same, too, with the urine of the panther and other animals of the genus Felis.

1980For some superstitious reason, in all probability. Pliny mentions below, the formalities with which this plant ought to be gathered.

1981See B. xiii. c. 2. The ancient type of this plant, our iris, sword-lily, or flower-de-luce, was probably the Iris Florentina or Florentine iris of modern botany.

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