fragrance of lilies. The fruit is in like manner attached to a single thick stalk, but in a cluster: as it becomes quite ripe,[1] it turns black, but when unripe it is like unripe grapes; in size the berry is a little larger than the seed of a vetch; the juice is like wine in appearance, and in it men bathe[2] their hands and heads when they are being initiated into the mysteries. The seeds inside the berry are like sesame.
[3]The willow also grows by the water, and there are many kinds. There is that which is called the black willow[4] because its bark is black and red, and that which is called the white[4] from the colour of its bark. The black kind has boughs which are fairer and more serviceable for basket-work, while those of the white are more brittle.[5] There is a form both of the black and of the white which is small and does not grow to a height,—just as there are dwarf forms of other trees, such as prickly cedar and palm. The people of Arcadia call the tree[6] not 'willow' but helike they believe, as was said,[7] that it bears fruitful seed.
Of elm, poplars, alder, [semyda, bladder-senna].
XIV. [8]Of the elm there are two kinds, of which one is called the 'mountain elm,' the other simply the 'elm': the difference is that the latter is shrubbier, while the mountain elm grows more vigoursly. The leaf is undivided and slightly jagged, longer than that of the pear, but rough
- ↑ καταπεπαινόμενος conj. W.; καὶ πεπ. VAld.
- ↑ καὶ … βάπτονται I conj., following Scal., W., etc., but keeping closer to U: certain restoration perhaps impossible; καὶ τὰς χεῖρας τελείους ἀναβλάστει δὲ καὶ τὰς κεΦαλάς U; χεῖρας δὲ τελείους• ἀναβλασεῖ MV; om. G.
- ↑ Plin. 16. 174 and 175.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 See Index.
- ↑ καπυρωτέρας conj. Sch. καὶ πυρωτέρας U; καὶ πυροτέρας MVAld. cf. 3. 13. 4.
- ↑ Sc. ἰτέα generally.
- ↑ 3. 1. 2.
- ↑ Plin. 16. 72.
