The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

Chapter 24: CHAP. 22.—SESAME. ERYSIMUM, OR IRIO. HORMINUM.

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The text compiles practical and encyclopedic guidance on crop cultivation and plant uses, beginning with cereals and farm management — types of grain, sowing and harvesting schedules, ploughing, seed selection, storage, and maladies — plus weather and stellar prognostics for agricultural timing. It proceeds to flax and garden plants, detailing varieties, planting and processing methods, garden layout, and pest and disease remedies. The final section assembles medicinal preparations and numerous remedies derived from vegetables and herbs, listing applications and recipes for treating ailments using garden-grown plants.

CHAP. 22.—SESAME. ERYSIMUM, OR IRIO. HORMINUM.

We have spoken 204 of sesame, millet, and panic as belonging to the summer grains. Sesame 205 comes from India, where they extract an oil from it; the colour of its grain is white. Similar in appearance to this is the erysimum of Asia and Greece, and indeed it would be identical with it were it not that the grain is better filled.206 It is the same grain that is known among us as “irio;” and strictly speaking, ought rather to be classed among the medicaments than the cereals. Of the same nature, too, is the plant called “horminum”207 by the Greeks, though resembling cummin 208 in appearance; it is sown at the same time as sesame: no animal will eat either this or irio while green.