Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XIX. THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS., CHAP. 37.—PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS.

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CHAP. 37.—PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS.

Of ocimum, lapathum, blite, cresses, rocket, orage, coriander, and anise respectively, there is but a single kind, these plants being the same everywhere, and no better in one place than in another. It is the general belief that stolen¹ rue grows the best, while, on the other hand, bees² that have been stolen will never thrive. Wild mint, cat-mint, endive, and pennyroyal, will grow even without any cultivation. With reference to the plants of which we have already spoken, or shall have occasion to speak, there are numerous varieties of many of them, parsley more particularly.

(8.) As to the kind of parsley³ which grows spontaneously in moist localities, it is known by the name of "helioselinum;"⁴ it has a single leaf⁵ only, and is not rough at the edges. In dry places, we find growing the kind known as "hipposelinum,"⁶ consisting of numerous leaves, similar to helioselinum. A third variety is the oreoselinum⁷, with leaves like those of hemlock, and a thin, fine, root, the seed being similar to that of anise, only somewhat smaller.

The differences, again, that are found to exist in cultivated parsley⁸, consist in the comparative density of the leaves, the crispness or smoothness of their edges, and the thinness or thickness of the stem, as the case may be: in some kinds, again, the stem is white, in others purple, and in others mottled.

1 This puerility, Fée observes, runs counter to the more moral adage, that "stolen goods never prosper."

2 See B. xi. c. 15.

3 This variety, Fée says, is the Apium graveolens of Linnæus.

4 Or marsh-parsley.

5 Pliny has mistranslated, or rather misread, the passage of Theo- phrastus, who says, B. vii. c. 6, that this kind of parsley is μανόφυλλον, "thinly covered with leaves," and not μονόφυλλον, "having a single leaf." Palladius (In Aprili.) translates it, "molli folio," "with a soft leaf;" but, though Fée commends this version, it is not correct.

6 Or "horse-parsley." Hardouin takes this to be Macedonian parsley, the Bubon Macedonicum of Linnæus. Fée, following C. Bauhin and Sprengel, is inclined to identify it with Macerona, the Smyrnium olusatrum of Linnæus.

7 Or "mountain-parsley." Probably the Athamanta oreoselinum of Linnæus. Some commentators, however, take it to be the Laserpitium formosum of Wilidenow. Sprengel identifies it with the Selinum oreoselinum of Linnæus.

8 The Apium petroselinum, probably, of Linnæus.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 37.—PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 37.—PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.