[978] “Porcillaca.” The Portulaca oleracea of Linnæus.
[979] The Rhus cotinus of Linnæus, a sort of sumach.
[980] This is not the fact; the seeds when ripe are merely lost to view in the large tufts of down which grow on the stems.
[981] Generally supposed to be the same as the alaternus, mentioned in B. xvi. c. [45]. Some writers identify it with the Phyllirea angustifolia of Linnæus.
[982] Probably the Ferula communis of Linnæus, the herb or shrub known as “fennel giant.”
[983] The Ferula glauca of Linnæus.
[984] The Ferula nodiflora of Linnæus.
[985] It is still used for that purpose in the south of Europe. The Roman schoolmasters, as we learn from Juvenal, Martial, and others, employed it for the chastisement of their scholars. Pliny is in error in reckoning it among the trees, it really having no pretensions to be considered such. It is said to have received its name from “ferio,” to “beat.”
[986] Sprengel thinks that this is the Thapsia asclepium of the moderns; but Fée takes it to be the Thapsia villosa of Linnæus.
[987] It was valued, Dioscorides says, for its cathartic properties.