Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Besides the two authors above-mentioned, Theophrastus, among the Greeks, has written on the subject of flowers. Some of our own writers also have given the title of “Anthologica” to their works, but no one, to my knowledge at least, has treated expressly of flowers. In fact, we ourselves have no intention here of discussing the mode of wearing chaplets, for that would be frivolous indeed; but shall proceed to state such particulars in relation to flowers as shall appear to us deserving of remark.

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  CHAP. 10. (4.)

  THE ROSE: TWELVE VARIETIES OF IT.

  The people of our country were acquainted with but very few garland flowers among the garden plants, and those few hardly any but the violet and the rose. The plant which bears the rose is, properly speaking, more of a thorn than a shrub — indeed, we sometimes find it growing on a bramble even; the flower having, even then, a pleasant smell, though by no means penetrating. The flower in all roses is originally enclosed in a bud, with a grained surface within, which gradually swells, and assumes the form of a green pointed cone, similar to our alabaster unguent boxes in shape. Gradually acquiring a ruddy tint, this bud opens little by little, until at last it comes into full blow, developing the calyx, and embracing the yellow-pointed filaments which stand erect in the centre of it.

  The employment of the rose in chaplets is, so to say, the least use that is made of it. The flower is steeped in oil, a practice which has prevailed from the times of the Trojan war, as Homer bears witness; in addition to which, it now forms an ingredient in our unguents, as mentioned on a previous occasion. It is employed also by itself for certain medicinal purposes, and is used in plasters and eye-salves for its penetrating qualities: it is used, also, to perfume the delicacies of our banquets, and is never attended with any noxious results.

  The most esteemed kinds of rose among us are those of Præneste and Campania. Some persons have added to these varieties the rose of Miletus, the flower of which is an ex- tremely brilliant red, and has never more than a dozen petals. The next to it is the rose of Trachyn, not so red as the last, and then that of Alabanda, with whitish petals, but not so highly esteemed. The least esteemed of all, however, is the thorn rose, the petals of which are numerous, but extremely small. The essential points of difference in the rose are the number of the petals, the comparative number of thorns on the stem, the colour, and the smell. The number of the petals, which is never less than five, goes on increasing in amount, till we find one variety with as many as a hundred, and thence known as the “centifolia:” in Italy, it is to be found in Campania, and in Greece, in the vicinity of Philippi, though this last is not the place of its natural growth. Mount Pan- gæus, in the same vicinity, produces a rose with numerous petals of diminutive size: the people of those parts are in the habit of transplanting it, a method which greatly tends to im- prove its growth. This kind, however, is not remarkable for its smell, nor yet is the rose which has a very large or very broad petal: indeed, we may state in a few words, that the best proof of the perfume of the flower is the comparative roughness of the calyx.

  Cæpio, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, asserts that the centifolia is never employed for chaplets, except at the extreme points of union as it were, being remarkable neither for its smell nor its beauty. There is another variety of rose, too, called the “Grecian” rose by our people, and “lychnis” by the Greeks: it grows nowhere except in humid soils, and has never more than five petals: it does not exceed the violet in size, and is destitute of smell. There is another kind, again, known to us as the “Græcula,” the petals of which are tightly rolled together, and which never open except when pressed in the hand, it having always the appearance, in fact, of being in bud: the petals of it are remarkably large. Another kind, again, springs from a stem like that of the mallow, the leaves being similar to those of the olive — the name given to it is “macetum.” There is the rose of autumn, too, known to us as the “coroniola,” which is of a middle size, between the varieties just mentioned. All these kinds, however, are destitute of smell, with the exception of the coroniola, and the one which grows on the bramble: so extended is the scope for fictitious productions!

  And, indeed, the genuine rose, for the most part, is indebted for its qualities to the nature of the soil. That of Cyrenæ is the most odoriferous of all, and hence it is that the unguents of that place are so remarkably fine: at Carthage, again, in Spain, there are early roses throughout all the winter. The temperature, too, of the climate is not without its influence: for in some years we find the roses much less odoriferous than in others; in addition to which, their smell is always more powerful when grown in dry soils than in humid ones. The rose does not admit of being planted in either a rich or an argillaccous soil, nor yet on irrigated land; being contented with a thin, light earth, and more particularly attached to ground on which old building rubbish has been laid.

  The rose of Campania is early, that of Miletus late, but it is the rose of Præneste that goes off the very latest of all. For the rose, the ground is generally dug to a greater depth than it is for corn, but not so deep as for the vine. It grows but very slowly from the seed, which is found in the calyx beneath the petals of the flower, covered with a sort of down; hence it is that the method of grafting is usually the one preferred, or else propagation from the eyes of the root, as in the reed. One kind is grafted, which bears a pale flower, with thorny branches of a remarkable length; it belongs to the quinquefolia variety, being one of the Greek roses. All roses are improved by being pruned and cauterized; transplanting, too, makes them grow, like the vine, all the better, and with the greatest rapidity. The slips are cut some four fingers in length or more, and are planted immediately after the setting of the Vergiliæ; then, while the west winds are prevalent, they are transplanted at intervals of a foot, the earth being frequently turned up about them.

  Persons whose object it is to grow early roses, make a hole a foot in width about the root, and pour warm water into it, at the period when the buds are beginning to put forth.

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  CHAP. 11. (5.)

  THE LILY: FOUR VARIETIES OF IT.

  The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose, and has a certain affinity with it in respect of its unguent and the oil extracted from it, which is known to us as “lirinon.” Blended, too, with roses, the lily produces a remarkably fine effect; for it begins to make its appearance, in fact, just as the rose is in the very middle of its season. There is no flower that grows to a greater height than the lily, sometimes, indeed, as much as three cubits; the head of it being always drooping, as though the neck of the flower were unable to support its weight. The whiteness of the lily is quite remarkable, the petals being striated on the exterior; the flower is narrow at the base, and gradually expanding in shape like a tapering cup with the edges curving outwards, the fine pistils of the flower, and the stamens with their antheræ of a saffron colour, standing erect in the middle. Hence the perfume of the lily, as well as its colour, is two-fold, there being one for the petals and another for the stamens. The difference, however, between them is but very small, and when the flower is employed for making lily unguents and oils, the petals are never rejected.

  There is a flower, not unlike the lily, produced by the plant known to us as the “convolvulus.” It grows among shrubs, is totally destitute of smell, and has not the yellow antheræ of the lily within: only vying with it in its whiteness, it would almost appear to be the rough sketch made by Nature when she was learning how to make the lily. The white lily is propagated in all the various ways which are employed for the cultivation of the rose, as also by means of a certain tearlike gum which belongs to it, similarly to hipposelinum in fact: indeed, there is no plant that is more prolific than this, a single root often giving birth to as many as fifty bulbs. There is, also, a red lily, known by the name of “crinon” to the Greeks, though there are some authors who call the flower of it “cynorrodon.” The most estee
med are those of Antiochia and Laodicea in Syria, and next to them that of Phaselis. To the fourth rank belongs the flower that grows in Italy.

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  CHAP. 12.

  THE NARCISSUS: THREE VARIETIES OF IT.

  There is a purple lily, too, which sometimes has a double stem; it differs only from the other lilies in having a more fleshy root and a bulb of larger size, but undivided: the name given to it is “narcissus” A second variety of this lily has a white flower, with a purple corolla. There is also this difference between the ordinary lily and the narcissus, that in the latter the leaves spring from the root of the plant. The finest are those which grow on the mountains of Lycia. A third variety is similar to the others in every respect, except that the corolla of the plant is green. They are all of them late flowers: indeed, they only bloom after the setting of Arcturus, and at the time of the autumnal equinox.

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  CHAP. 13.

  HOW SEED IS STAINED TO PRODUCE TINTED FLOWERS.

  There has been invented also a method of tinting the lily, thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions. The dried stalks of the lily are tied together in the month of July, and hung up in the smoke: then, in the following March, when the small knots are beginning to disclose themselves, the stalks are left to steep in the lees of black or Greek wine, in order that they may contract its colour, and are then planted out in small trenches, some semi-sextarii of wine-lees being poured around them. By this method purple lilies are obtained, it being a very remarkable thing that we should be able to dye a plant to such a degree as to make it produce a coloured flower.

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  CHAP. 14. (6.)

  HOW THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THE VIOLET ARE RESPECTIVELY PRODUCED, GROWN, AND CULTIVATED. THE THREE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF THE VIOLET. THE FIVE VARIETIES OF THE YELLOW VIOLET.

  Next after the roses and the lilies, the violet is held in the highest esteem: of this there are several varieties, the purple, the yellow, and the white, all of them reproduced from plants, like the cabbage. The purple violet, which springs up spontaneously in sunny spots, with a thin, meagre soil, has larger petals than the others, springing immediately from the root, which is of a fleshy substance. This violet has a name, too, distinct from the other wild kinds, being called “ion,” and from it the ianthine cloth takes its name.

  Among the cultivated kinds, the yellow violet is held in the greatest esteem. The Tusculan violet, and that known as the “marine” violet, have petals somewhat broader than the others, but not so odoriferous; the Calatian violet, too, which has a smaller leaf, is entirely destitute of smell. This last is a present to us from the autumn, the others from the spring.

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  CHAP. 15.

  THE CALTHA. THE SCOPA REGIA.

  Next to it comes the caltha, the flowers of which are of similar colour and size; 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;” but there it is the leaves of the plant, and not the flowers, that are odoriferous.

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  CHAP. 16.

  THE BACCHAR. THE COMBRETUM. ASARUM.

  The bacchar, too, by some persons known as “field nard,” is odoriferous in the root only. In former times, it was the practice to make unguents of this root, as we learn from the poet Aristophanes, a writer of the Ancient Comedy; from which circumstance some persons have erroneously given the name of “exotic” to the plant. The smell of it strongly resembles that of cinnamomum; and the plant grows in thin soils, which are free from all humidity.

  The name of “combretum” is given to a plant that bears a very strong resemblance to it, the leaves of which taper to the fineness of threads; in height, however, it is taller than the bacchar. These are the only * * * * The error, however, ought to be corrected, on the part of those who have bestowed upon the bacchar the name of “field nard;” for that in reality is the surname given to another plant, known to the Greeks as “asaron,” the description and features of which we have already mentioned, when speaking of the different va- rieties of nard. I find, too, that the name of “asaron” has been given to this plant, from the circumstance of its never being employed in the composition of chaplets.

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  CHAP. 17.

  SAFFRON: IN WHAT PLACES IT GROWS BEST. WHAT FLOWERS WERE KNOWN AT THE TIME OF THE TROJAN WAR.

  The wild saffron is the best; indeed, in Italy it is of no use whatever to attempt to propagate it, the produce of a whole bed of saffron being boiled down to a single scruple; it is reproduced by offsets from the bulb. The cultivated saffron is larger, finer, and better looking than the other kinds, but has much less efficacy. This plant is everywhere degenerating, and is far from prolific at Cyrenæ even, a place where the flowers are always of the very finest quality. The most esteemed saffron, however, is that of Cilicia, and there of Mount Corycus in particular; next comes the saffron of Mount Olympus, in Lycia, and then of Centuripa, in Sicily; some persons, however, have given the second rank to the Phlegræan saffron.

  There is nothing so much adulterated as saffron: the best proof of its goodness is when it snaps under pressure by the fingers, as though it were friable; for when it is moist, a state which it owes to being adulterated, it is limp, and will not snap asunder. Another way of testing it, again, is to apply it with the hand to the face, upon which, if, good, it will be found to be slightly caustic to the face and eyes. There is a peculiar kind, too, of cultivated saffron, which is in general extremely mild, being only of middling quality; the name given to it is “dialeucon.” The saffron of Cyrenaica, again, is faulty in the opposite extreme; for it is darker than any other kind, and is apt to spoil very quickly. The best saffron everywhere is that which is of the most unctuous quality, and the filaments of which are the shortest; the worst being that which emits a musty smell.

  Mucianus informs us that in Lycia, at the end of seven or eight years, the saffron is transplanted into a piece of ground which has been prepared for the purpose, and that in this way it is prevented from degenerating. It is never used for chaplets, being a plant with an extremely narrow leaf, as fine almost as a hair; but it combines remarkably well with wine, sweet wine in particular. Reduced to a powder, it is used to perfume the theatres.

  Saffron blossoms about the setting of the Vergiliæ, for a few days only, the leaf expelling the flower. It is verdant at the time of the winter solstice, and then it is that they gather it; it is usually dried in the shade, and if in winter, all the better. The root of this plant is fleshy, and more long-lived than that of the other bulbous plants. It loves to be beaten and trodden under foot, and in fact, the worse it is treated the better it thrives: hence it is, that it grows so vigorously by the side of foot-paths and fountains. (7.) Saffron was already held in high esteem in the time of the Trojan War; at all events, Homer, we find, makes mention of these three flowers, the lotus, the saffron, and the hyacinth.

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  CHAP. 18.

  THE NATURE OF ODOURS.

  All the odoriferous substances, and consequently the plants, differ from one another in their colour, smell, and juices. It is but rarely that the taste of an odoriferous substance is not bitter; while sweet substances, on the other hand, are but rarely odoriferous. Thus it is, too, that wine is more odoriferous than must, and all the wild plants more so than the cultivated ones. Some flowers have a sweet smell at a distance, the edge of which is taken off when they come nearer; such is the case with the violet, for instance. The rose, when fresh gathered, has a more powerful smell at a distance, and dried, when brought nearer. All plants have a more penetrating odour, also, in spring and in the morning; as the hour of midday approaches, the scen
t becomes gradually weakened. The flowers, too, of young plants are less odoriferous than those of old ones; but it is at mid-age that the odour is most penetrating in them all.

  The rose and the crocus have a more powerful smell when gathered in fine weather, and all plants are more powerfully scented in hot climates than in cold ones. In Egypt, however, the flowers are far from odoriferous, owing to the dews and exhalations with which the air is charged, in consequence of the extended surface of the river. Some plants have an agreeable, though at the same time extremely powerful smell; some, again, while green, have no smell at all, owing to the excess of moisture, the buceros for example, which is the same as fenugreek. Not all flowers which have a penetrating odour are destitute of juices, the violet, the rose, and the crocus, for example; those, on the other hand, which have a penetrating odour, but are destitute of juices, have all of them a very powerful smell, as we find the case with the two varieties of the lily. The abrotonum and the amaracus have a pungent smell. In some plants, it is the flower only that is sweet, the other parts being inodorous, the violet and the rose, for example.

  Among the garden plants, the most odoriferous are the dry ones, such as rue, mint, and parsley, as also those which grow on dry soils. Some fruits become more odoriferous the older they are, the quince, for example, which has also a stronger smell when gathered than while upon the tree. Some plants, again, have no smell but when broken asunder, or when bruised, and others only when they are stripped of their bark. Certain vegetable substances, too, only give out a smell when subjected to the action of fire, such as frankincense and myrrh, for example. All flowers are more bitter to the taste when bruised than when left untouched. Some plants preserve their smell a longer time when dried, the melilote, for example; others, again, make the place itself more odoriferous where they grow, the iris for instance, which will even render the whole of a tree odoriferous, the roots of which it may happen to have touched. The hesperis has a more powerful odour at night, a property to which it owes its name.