The chrysocome,[2021] or chrysitis, has no Latin appellation: it is a palm in height, the flowers forming clusters of a golden colour. The root of it is black, and it has a taste both rough and sweet: it is found growing in stony and umbrageous spots.
CHAP. 27. (9.)—SHRUBS, THE BLOSSOMS OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.
Having thus passed in review nearly all the best-known colours, we must now give our attention to the chaplets which are pleasing merely on account of the variety of their materials. Of such chaplets there are two kinds, one composed of flowers, the other of leaves. The flowers so employed, I may say, are those of broom[2022]—the yellow blossom gathered from it—the rhododendron,[2023] and the jujube,[2024] also known as the tree of Cappadocia, which bears an odoriferous flower similar to that of the olive. Among the brambles, too, we find the cyclaminum growing, of which we shall have to speak more at length on a future occasion:[2025] its flower, which reflects the hues of the purple of Colossæ,[2026] is used as an ingredient in chaplets.
CHAP. 28.—SHRUBS, THE LEAVES OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.
The leaves, also, of smilax and ivy are employed in chaplets; indeed, the clusters of these plants are held in the very highest esteem for this purpose: we have already[2027] spoken of them at sufficient length when treating of the shrubs. There are also other kinds of shrubs, which can only be indicated by their Greek names, little attention having been paid by the framers of our language to this branch of nomenclature. Most of them grow in foreign countries, it is true; but still, it is our duty to make some mention of them, as it is of Nature in general that we are speaking, and not of Italy in particular.
CHAP. 29.—THE MELOTHRON, SPIRÆA, AND ORIGANUM. THE CNEORUM OR CASSIA; TWO VARIETIES OF IT. THE MELISSOPHYLLUM OR MELITTÆNA. THE MELILOTE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS CAMPANIAN GARLAND.
Thus it is, that we find employed for chaplets, the leaves of the melothron,[2028] spiræa,[2029] origanum,[2030] cneorum,[2031] by Hyginus called “cassia,” conyza or cunilago,[2032] melissophyllon or apiastrum,[2033] and melilote, known to us by the name of “Campanian[2034] garland,” the best kind of melilote[2035] in Italy being that of Campania, in Greece that of Cape Sunium, and next to that the produce of Chalcidice and Crete: but wherever this plant grows it is only to be found in rugged and wild localities. The name “sertula” or “garland,” which it bears, sufficiently proves that this plant was formerly much used in the composition of chaplets. The smell, as well as the flower, closely resembles that of saffron, though the stem itself is white; the shorter and more fleshy the leaves, the more highly it is esteemed.
CHAP. 30.—THREE VARIETIES OF TREFOIL: THE MYOPHONUM.
The leaves of trefoil also are employed for making chaplets. There are three varieties: the first being called by the Greeks sometimes “minyanthes,”[2036] and sometimes “asphaltion;” the leaves of it, which the garland-makers employ, are larger than those of the other kinds. The second variety, known as the “oxytriphyllon,”[2037] has a pointed leaf; and the third has the smallest leaf of them all. Among these plants there are some which have a tough, sinewy stem, such as marathron,[2038] for instance, hippomarathron,[2039] and the myophonum.[2040] The umbels, too, of fennel-giant and the purple flowers[2041] of the ivy are employed for this purpose; as also another kind of ivy very similar to the wild rose,[2042] the colour only of which is attractive, the flower being quite inodorous. There are also two[2043] varieties used of the cneorum, the black and the white, this last being odoriferous: they are both of them provided with branches, and they blossom after the autumnal equinox.[2044]
(10.) There are the same number of varieties, also, of origanum employed in making chaplets, one of which is destitute of seed, the other, which is also odoriferous, being known as the Cretan[2045] origanum.