Nearly all1037 the garden plants have a single1038 root only, radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example; it is lapathum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attaining the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants, however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example; and in others they are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some, again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish and the rape; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass.1039 Those plants which have not a straight root throw out immediately a great number of hairy fibres, orage1040 and blite,1041 for instance: squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spontaneously, there are some which have more numerous roots than leaves, spalax,1042 for example, pellitory,1043 and saffron.1044

Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue blossom all1045 at once; while others, again, shed their blossom directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum1046 blossoms gradually, beginning at the lower parts, and hence it is that it is so very long in blossom: the same is the case, too, with the plant known as heliotropium.1047 In some plants the flower is white, in others yellow, and in others purple. The leaves fall first1048 from the upper part in wild-marjoram and elecampane, and in rue1049 sometimes, when it has been injured accidentally. In some plants the leaves are hollow, the onion and the scallion,1050 more particularly.