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

Chapter 272: CHAP. 15.—THE CALTHA. THE SCOPA REGIA.

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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. 15.—THE CALTHA. THE SCOPA REGIA.

Next to it comes the caltha, the flowers of which are of similar colour and size;1940 in the number of its petals, however, it surpasses the marine violet, the petals of which are never more than five in number. The marine violet is surpassed, too, by the other in smell; that of the caltha being very powerful. The smell, too, is no less powerful in the plant known as the “scopa regia;”1941 but there it is the leaves of the plant, and not the flowers, that are odoriferous.