CHAP. 61.—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF EARED PLANTS: THE STANYOPS; THE ALOPECUROS; THE STELEPHUROS, ORTYX, OR PLANTAGO; THE THRYALLIS.
The eared[2234] plants form another variety: among them we find the cynops,[2235] the alopecuros,[2236] the stelephuros,[2237] also known to some persons as the ortyx,[2238] and to others as the plantago, of which last we shall have occasion[2239] to speak more at length among the medicinal plants, and the thryallis.[2240] The alopecuros, among these, has a soft ear and a thick down, not unlike a fox’s tail in fact, to which resemblance it owes its name. The plant most like[2241] it is the stelephuros, were it not that it blossoms only a little at a time. In the cichorium and similar plants, the leaves are near the ground, the buds springing from the root just after the rising of the Vergiliæ.[2242]