Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XIX. THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS., CHAP. 62.

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CHAP. 62.—PIPERITIS, LIBANOTIS, AND SMYRNIUM.

To come to a full understanding, too, both here as elsewhere, how unfounded are the notions which are generally entertained, I shall take this opportunity of remarking that panax¹ has the flavour of pepper, and siliquastrum even more so, a circum- stance to which it owes its name of piperitis:² libanotis³ again, has just the odour of frankincense, and smyrnium⁴ of myrrh. As to panax, we have spoken of it at sufficient length already.⁵ Libanotis grows in a thin, crumbly soil, and is generally sown in spots exposed to the falling dews; the root, which is just like that of olusatrum,⁶ has a smell in no way differing from that of frankincense; when a year old, it is extremely wholesome for the stomach; some persons give it the name of rosmarinum.⁷ Smyrnium is a garden herb that grows in similar soils, and has a root which smells like myrrh: siliquastrum, too, is grown in a similar manner.

Other plants, again, differ from the preceding ones, both in smell and taste, anise⁸ for example; indeed, so great is the difference in this respect, and in their relative virtues, that not only are the properties of each modified by the other, but quite neutralized even. It is in this way that our cooks correct the flavour of vinegar in their dishes with parsley, and our butlers employ the same plant, enclosed in sachets, for removing a bad odour in wine.

⁹Thus far, then, we have treated of the garden plants, viewed as articles of food only; it remains for us now (for up to the present we have only spoken of their various methods of culti- vation, with some succinct details relative thereto), to enlarge upon the more elaborate operations of Nature in this respect; it being quite impossible to come to a full understanding as to the true characteristics of each individual plant, without a knowledge of its medicinal effects, a sublime and truly mysterious manifestation of the wisdom of the Deity, than which nothing can possibly be found of a nature more elevated. It is upon principle that we have thought proper not to enlarge upon the medicinal properties of each plant when treating of it; for it is a quite different class of persons that is interested in knowing their curative properties, and there is no doubt that both classes of readers would have been inconvenienced in a very material degree, if these two points of view had engaged our attention at the same moment. As it is, each class will have its own portion to refer to, while those who desire to do so, will experience no difficulty in uniting them, with reference to any subject of which we may happen to treat.

SUMMARY.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand one hundred and forty-four.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Maccius Plautus,¹⁰. M. Varro,¹¹ D. Silanus,¹² Cato the Censor,¹³ Hyginus,¹⁴ Virgil,¹⁵ Mucianus,¹⁶ Celsus,¹⁷ Columella,¹⁸ Calpurnius Bassus,¹⁹ Mamilius Sura,²⁰ Sabinus Tiro,²¹ Licinius Macer,²² Quintus Hirtius,²³ Vibius Rufus,²⁴ Cæsennius²⁵ who wrote the Cepurica, Castritius²⁶ who wrote on the same subject, Firmus²⁷ who wrote on the same subject, Petrichus²⁸ who wrote on the same subject.

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Herodotus,²⁹ Theophrastus,³⁰ Democritus,³¹ Aristomachus,³² Menander³³ who wrote the Biochresta, Anaxiläus.³⁴

1 See B. xii. c. 57.

2 Or pepper-wort. See B. xx. c. 66.

3 See B. xx. c. 54.

4 The same, probably, as olusatrum. See cc. 37 and 48 of this Book, and B. xx. c. 46: also B. xxvii. c. 109.

5 In B. xii. c. 57.

6 See c. 48 of this Book.

7 Rosemary, or "sea-dew."

8 See B. xx. c. 74.

9 Fée suggests, though apparently without any good reason, that this paragraph, to the end of the Book, is an interpolation of the copyists.

10 See end of B. xiv.

11 See end of B. ii.

12 See end of B. xiv.

13 See end of B. iii.

14 See end of B. iii.

15 See end of B. vii.

16 See end of B. ii.

17 See end of B. vii.

18 See end of B. viii.

19 See end of B. xvi.

20 See end of B. x.

21 Beyond the mention made of this writer in c. 57, nothing whatever is known of him.

22 C. Licinius Macer, a Roman annalist and orator, born about B.C. 110. Upon being impeached by Cicero, he committed suicide. He wrote a History or Annals of Rome, which are frequently referred to by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

23 Nothing whatever appears to be known of this writer.

24 See end of B. xiv.

25 Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer on Horticulture.

26 Nothing certain is known of him; but it has been suggested that he may have been the father of the rhetorician Castritius, so often mentioned by Aulus Gellius, and who lived in the time of the Emperor Adrian.

27 Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer.

28 The author of a Greek poem on venomous serpents, mentioned in B. xx. c. 96, and B. xxii. c. 40, and by the Scholiast on the Theriaca of Nicander.

29 See end of B. ii.

30 See end of B. iii.

31 See end of B. ii.

32 See end of B. xi.

33 Nothing whatever is known of him. His Book seems to have been a compendium of "Things useful to life."

34 A physician and Pythagorean philosopher, born at one of the cities called Larissa, but which, is now unknown. He was banished by the Emperor Augustus, B.C. 28, on the charge of practising magic, a charge probably based on his superior skill in natural philosophy. He is frequently mentioned by Pliny in the course of this work.

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. 62.—PIPERITIS, LIBANOTIS, AND SMYRNIUM.

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. 62.—PIPERITIS, LIBANOTIS, AND SMYRNIUM.

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