[946] See c. [27] of this Book.
[947] Fée remarks that this juxtaposition of anise and mallows betokens the most complete ignorance of botany on the part of our author; there being few plants which differ more essentially. The field-mallow, or Malva silvestris of Linnæus, or perhaps several varieties of it, are here referred to. The anise will be further mentioned in c. 74 of this Book.
[948] Fée suggests that the plant here mentioned may have been an annual, probably the Lavatorea arborea of botanists, or some kindred species. In a few months it is known to attain a height of ten feet or more.
[949] In Fée’s opinion this tree cannot have belonged to the family of Malvaceæ; the Adansonia and some other exotics of the family, with which Pliny undoubtedly was not acquainted, being the only ones that attain these gigantic proportions.
[950] There is no resemblance between mallows and hemp, any more than there is between mallows and anise.
[951] “Carnosa.”
[952] Hardouin thinks that he alludes to the Conferva, or river sponge, again mentioned in B. xxvii. c. 45. Fée, however, dissents from that opinion.
[953] In B. xvi. cc. 11 and 13, and in cc. 12 and 14 of the present Book.
[954] In c. 11 of the present Book.
[955] The Cucumis sativus of Linnæus.