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

Chapter 269: CHAP. 12.—THE NARCISSUS: THREE VARIETIES OF IT.

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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. 12.—THE NARCISSUS: THREE VARIETIES OF IT.

There is a purple 1926 lily, too, which sometimes has a double stem; it differs only from the other lilies in having a more fleshy root and a bulb of larger size, but undivided:1927 the name given to it is “narcissus.”1928 A second variety of this lily has a white flower, with a purple corolla. There is also this difference between the ordinary lily and the narcissus, that in the latter the leaves spring from the root of the plant. The finest are those which grow on the mountains of Lycia. A third variety is similar to the others in every respect, except that the corolla of the plant is green. They are all of them late 1929 flowers: indeed, they only bloom after the setting of Arcturus,1930 and at the time of the autumnal equinox.