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

Chapter 285: CHAP. 28.—SHRUBS, THE LEAVES OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.

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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. 28.—SHRUBS, THE LEAVES OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.

The leaves, also, of smilax and ivy are employed in chaplets; indeed, the clusters of these plants are held in the very highest esteem for this purpose: we have already 2027 spoken of them at sufficient length when treating of the shrubs. There are also other kinds of shrubs, which can only be indicated by their Greek names, little attention having been paid by the framers of our language to this branch of nomenclature. Most of them grow in foreign countries, it is true; but still, it is our duty to make some mention of them, as it is of Nature in general that we are speaking, and not of Italy in particular.