[858] White would be much preferable to red for this purpose.
[859] Il. ii. ll. 529 and 830.
[860] Il. viii. l. 63.
[861] Il. ii. l. 135. See B. xxiv. c. 40.
[862] The Stipa tenacissima of Linnæus; a kind of broom, called “Esparto” by the Spaniards.
[863] Although, as Fée says, this is still the fact, it is a plant which would readily admit of cultivation. Varro, however, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 23, speaks of it in conjunction with hemp, flax, and rushes, as being sown.
[864] This kind, Fée thinks, may possibly have been identical with the Spartum Lygeum of Linnæus, false esparto, or alvarde.
[865] At the present day it is only in the provinces on the Mediterranean that spartum is found; the other provinces producing nothing but alvarde.
[866] It is still used in the southern parts of Spain for the same purposes.
[867] The shoes now made of it are known as “espartenas” and “alpargatas.”