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

We have spoken204 of sesame, millet, and panic as belonging to the summer grains. Sesame205 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 cummin208 in appearance; it is sown at the same time as sesame: no animal will eat either this or irio while green.