2112 In reality, there are no visible signs by which to detect that the honey is poisonous.
2113 B. xxix. c. 31.
2114 See B. xii. c. 25.
2115 Μαινόμενον, “maddening.”
2116 The ægolethron of the preceding Chapter, Fée thinks. If so, the word rhododendron, he says, would apply to two plants, the Nerion oleander or rose laurel (see B. xvi. c. 33), and the Rhododendron Ponticum.
2117 Fée refuses to credit this: but still such a thing might accidentally happen.
2118 These asserted remedies would be of no use whatever, Fée says.
2119 See B. vii. c. 2.
2120 Fée seems to take it for granted that Pliny is speaking here of honey made by other insects than bees; but such does not appear to be the case.
2121 Fée remarks here that Pliny is right, and that Columella and Palladius are wrong, who would have the hives to look due north.
2122 Lapis specularis: a sort of talc, probably. See B. iii. c. 4. B. ix. c. 56. B. xv. c. 1. B. xix. c. 23, and B. xxxvi. c. 45.
2123 In B. ix. c. 16, he mentions hives made of horn for this purpose. Glass hives are now made for the purpose, but the moisture which adheres to the interior of the glass prevents the operations of the bees from being watched with any degree of nicety.
2124 “Cognatum hoc.” He probably alludes to the notion entertained by the ancients that bees might be reproduced from the putrefied entrails of an ox, as wasps from those of a horse. See the story of Aristæus in B. iv. of Virgil’s Georgics.
2125 Or butterflies—“papiliones.”
2126 “Teredines.”
2127 Honeycombs and rough wax are placed in the hive, when the bees are in want of aliment; also honey and sugar-sirop.
2128 “Defrutum:” grape-juice boiled down to one-half.
2129 Fée is at a loss to know how this could be of any service as an aliment to bees.
2130 A mere puerility, Fée says.
2131 But extremely weak, no doubt; for after boiling, the hydromel must be subjected, first to vinous, and then to acetous, fermentation.
2132 The method here described differs but little from that employed at the present day.
2133 “Sporta.”
2134 Or Carthaginian.
2135 In reality, the wax has properties totally different from those of the honey, and it is not always gathered from the same plants.
2136 A kind of bee-glue. See B. xi. c. 6.
2137 Neither the nitre nor the salt, Fée says, would be of the slightest utility.
2138 By causing the aqueous particles that may remain in it, to evaporate.
2139 Or “likenesses”—“similitudines.” Waxen profiles seem to have been the favourite likenesses with the Romans: See the Asinaria of Plautus, A. iv. sc. i. l. 19, in which one of these portraits is clearly alluded to. Also Ovid, Heroid. xiii. l. 152, and Remed. Amor. l. 723. The “imagines” also, or busts of their ancestors, which were kept in their “atria,” were made of wax.
2140 To protect the paintings, probably, with which the walls were decorated.
2141 In B. xi.
2142 See B. xv. c. 28.
2143 See B. xxiii. c. 17. According to some authorities, it is supposed to be the Delphinium staphis agria of Linnæus; but Fée and Desfontaines identify it with the Tamus communis of Linnæus, Our Lady’s seal.
2145 In B. xxii. c. 33, this plant is called “halimon.” Some authors identify it with the Atriplex halymus, and others, again, with the Crithmum maritimum of Linnæus. See also B. xxvi. c. 50.
2146 Identified by some commentators with the Portulaca sativa or Portulaca oleracea of Linnæus.
2147 “Pastinaca pratensis.” Fée and Desfontaines are undecided whether this is the Daucus carota of Linnæus, the common carrot, or the Pastinaca sativa, the cultivated parsnip.
2148 “Lupus salictarius,” the “willow wolf,” literally; the Humulus lupulus of Linnæus. It probably took its Latin name from the tenacity with which it clung to willows and osiers.
2149 The Arum colocasia of Linnæus.
2150 The “bean.” Not, however, the Egyptian bean, which is the Nymphæa nelumbo of Linnæus, the Nelumbum speciosum of Willdenow.
2151 These filaments are mentioned also by Martial, Epig., B. viii. Ep. 33, and B. xiii. Ep. 57. But according to Desfontaines, this description applies to the stalks of the Nymphæa lotos, and not of the Arum colocasia.
2152 “Thyrsus.”
2153 Desfontaines has identified this with the Arctium lappa of botanists; but that is a land plant, and this, Pliny says, grows in the rivers, if the reading here is correct, it cannot be the plant of the same name mentioned in B. xxv. c. 58.
2154 This applies, Desfontaines says, to the Nymphæa nelumbo.
2155 Here he returns, according to Desfontaines, to the Arum colocasia.
2157 “Intubum erraticum.”
2158 The Cyperus Esculentus of Linnæus.
2159 Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 10, says that it grows in the sandy soil in the vicinity of the river.
2160 It is similar in appearance to the papyrus, and its tubercles are oblong, or round and fleshy, with an agreeable flavour.
2161 The Arachis hypogæa of Linnæus, the earth pistachio.
2162 The root is not large; but the fruit is so close to the earth that Pliny may have confounded it with the real root of the plant.
2163 Sprengel identifies this with the Lathyrus amphicarpos, and the aracos with the Lathyrus tuberosus, varieties of the chicheling vetch. Columna thinks that this last was the arachidna. Fée says that the data are altogether insufficient to enable us to form an opinion.
2164 The Chondrylla juncea of Linnæus, according to Fée; but Desfontaines identifies it with the Lactuca perennis.
2165 Desfontaines identifies it with the Hyoseris lucida. Fée says that the opinion is equally as difficult to combat as to support.
2166 Fée identifies it with the Caucalis grandiflora of Linnæus, a native of Greece. Desfontaines mentions the Caucalis Orientalis, an Eastern plant.
2168 A chicoraceous plant: the Tragopogon crocifolius of Linnæus.
2171 The Corchorus olitorius of Linnæus: still cultivated in Egypt.
2172 Identified by some, but it is doubtful if with any good reason, with the Leontodon taraxacum of Linnæus: our dandelion.
2173 The reading is doubtful, and it does not appear to have been identified.
2174 Or “stone-plant:” identified with the Sedum anacampseros of Linnæus: a variety of house-leek.
2175 On the contrary, it has a purple flower.
2176 It is this, probably, that has caused it to be identified with the Leontodon taraxacum.
2177 The Carthamus tinctorius of Linnæus, or bastard saffron. The seed of it is a powerful purgative to man, but has no effect on birds: it is much used for feeding parrots, hence one of its names, “parrot-seed.”
2178 Identified by Fée with the Atractylis of Dioscorides, the Carthamus mitissimus of Linnæus; the Carduncellus mitissimus of Decandolle.
2179 From ἄτρακτος, “a distaff.”
2180 The Centaurea lanata of Decandolle, the Centaurea benedicta of Linnæus.
2181 The Asparagus aphylla of Linnæus: the leafless asparagus.
2182 The Spartium scorpius of Linnæus: scorpion-grass, or scorpion-wort.
2184 See B. xxii. c. 11. The “sweet-root;” our liquorice. The Glycyrrhiza echinata of Linnæus bears a prickly fruit; it is of this, Fée thinks, that Pliny speaks here.
2185 Fée remarks, that though the leaf of the nettle is furnished with numerous stings, or rather prickly hairs, it is quite wrong to look upon them as thorns, which Pliny, in the present instance, (though not in the next Chapter) appears to do. Genuine thorns, he remarks, are abortive branches, which, of course, cannot be said of the fine hairs springing from the nerves of the leaf. See B. xxii. c. 15.
2186 Supposed to be the Tribulus terrestris of Linnæeus, a species of thistle: the leaves of this plant, however, are not provided, Fée remarks, with thorns at their base, the fruit alone being spinous. See c. 58 of this Book.
2189 See B. xxii. c. 13. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 5, identifies this plant with the Stœbe just mentioned.
2190 “Acetabulis.” Fée complains of the use of this term (meaning a “small cup”) in relation to the calyces of the nettle; such not being in reality their form.
2191 Probably in allusion to the Urtica dioica, which grows to a greater height than the Urtica urens. See B. xxii. c. 15.
2192 “Canina.” A variety, probably, of the Urtica urens, the nettle, with the exception of the Urtica pilifera, which has the most stinging properties of all those found in Europe, and the leaves of which are the most deeply indented.
2193 This has not been identified. They are all of them either inodorous, or else possessed of a faint, disagreeable smell.
2194 This “lanugo,” or down, as he calls it, consists of a fine elongated tube of cellular tissue, seated upon a gland of similar tissue. In this gland a poisonous fluid is secreted, and when any pressure is made upon the gland, the fluid passes upwards in the tube. The nettle of the East, known as the Devil’s Leaf, is of so poisonous a quality as to produce death.
2195 In some parts of the north of England and of Scotland the young plant of the Urtica dioica is eaten as greens, and is far from a disagreeable dish, strongly resembling spinach. It is also reckoned a very wholesome diet, and is taken habitually in the spring, under the impression that it purifies the blood. This notion, we see from the context, is as old as the time of the Romans.
2196 Dalechamps speaks of it as the custom in his time to wrap up fish and game in nettles, under the impression that they would keep the longer for it.
2199 He probably means the thistle, but possibly the artichoke, under this name. See B. xix. cc. 19 and 43, and B. xx. c. 99.
2200 This is probably the same with the second variety of the “Cnecos,” mentioned above in c. 53, the Centaurea lanata, or benedicta.
2201 Probably the Carduus leucographus of Linnæus.
2202 According to Dalechamps, this is the Echinops ritro of modern botany.
2204 “Many thorns.” According to Dalechamps, this is the Carduus spinosissimus angustifolius vulgaris of C. Bauhin, the Cirsium spinosissimum of Linnæus.
2205 Identified by Dalechamps with the Onopordon Illyricum, or Acanthium of modern botany.
2206 The Acarna gummifera of modern botanists, the flowers of which yield a kind of gum with an agreeable smell. It is quite a different plant from Wall pellitory, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 19, under this name.
2208 The black chamæleon is identified by Fée with the Brotera corymbosa of Willdenow: the white variety, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 21, with the Acarna gummifera of Willdenow, the Helxine above mentioned. Desfontaines identifies it with the Carlina acaulis.
2210 The Greek for “blood” or “slaughter.”
2211 “Carduus.”
2212 “Thorn mastich,” or “resin.”
2213 This is not the Cactus of modern botany, a plant mentioned in the sequel under the name of “Opuntia,” but probably the Cinara carduncellus. See B. xx. c. 99.
2214 Theophrastus says, that when peeled they have a somewhat bitter flavour, and are kept pickled in brine.
2215 This name is now given by naturalists to the calyx of Compositæ, which exists in the rudimentary condition of a membranous coronet, or of downy hairs, like silk.
2216 “Cortex.”
2217 The Trapa natans of Linnæus, or water chesnut, a prickly marsh plant of Europe and Asia. Hence our word “caltrop.”
2218 “Dira res alibi.”
2219 These two plants have no affinity whatever with the one just mentioned. The first of these so-called varieties is the Tribulus terrestris of Linnæus; and the second is identified by Fée, though with some doubt, with the Fagonia Cretica of Linnæus.
2220 The Ononis antiquorum of Linnæus, the Cammock, or rest-harrow.
2224 It has not been identified with any degree of certainty: the Centaurea nigra and the Campanula rapunculus have been named.
2225 See B. xxvii. c. 21: also c. 52 of this Book. The name appears to have been given to both the Leontodon taraxacum and the Lathyras aphaca of modern botany.
2226 Theophrastus has Picris in the parallel passage, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 9, the Helminthia echioides of Linnæus. If “Crepis” is the correct reading, that plant has not been identified.
2227 The herbaceous kinds are no doubt those alluded to.
2228 See B. xix. cc. 31, 36, and 44; and B. xx. c. 48. The ocimum of the Greeks has been identified by some with the Ocimum basilicum of Linnæus, our basil. That of the Romans seems to have been a name given to one or more varieties of leguminous plants of the vetch kind.
2230 This plant has not been identified, but Fée is inclined, from what Dioscorides says, B. iv. c. 24, to identify it with either the Lithospermum fruticosum, or else the Anchusa Italica of Linnæus.
2231 This is not the case, if this plant is identical with the Heliotropium Europæum, that being an annual.
2232 The Adiantum Capillus Veneris of Linnæus, or the Asplenium trichomanes of Linnæus. “Venus hair, or coriander maiden hair; others name it to be well fern.”—T. Cooper. The leaves of these plants last the whole of their lives.
2233 The Teuerium polium of Linnæeus, our poley; the leaves of which are remarkably long-lived.
2234 “Spicatæ.”
2235 Fée is in doubt whether to identify it with the Plantago cynops of the south of Europe, and the banks of the Rhine.
2236 “Foxtail.” According to Dalechamps, it is the Saccharum cylindricum, the Lagurus of Linnæus; but Fée expresses his doubts as to their identity.
2237 Fée inclines to think that it may be the Secale villosum of Linnæus; though the more recent commentators identify it with the Plantago angustifolia. The Saccharum Ravennæ has been suggested.
2238 Or “quail.”
2239 In B. xxv. c. 39.
2240 Hardouin takes this to be our pimpernel, the Sanguisorba officinalis of Linnæeus. Sprengel inclines to the Verbascum lychnitis of Linnæus.
2241 “Proxuma.”