[1075] Fée refuses credence to this story.
[1076] “Ursinum.” The Allium ursinum of Linnæus. Instead, however, of having the comparatively mild smell of millet, its odour is powerful; so much so, as to impart a strong flavour to the milk of the cows that eat of it. It is very common, Fée says, in nearly every part of France.
[1077] The whole nearly of this Chapter is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. cc. 1 and 2. It must be borne in mind that what the Romans called the “third” day would with us be the “second,” and so on; as in reckoning, they included the day reckoned from, as well as the day reckoned to.
[1078] Fée remarks, that most of the observations made in this Chapter are well founded.
[1079] This statement, Fée remarks, is entirely a fiction, it being impossible for seed to acquire, the second year, a faculty of germinating which it has not had in the first.
[1080] This is true, but, as Fée observes, the instances might be greatly extended.
[1081] Fée says that basil, the Ocimum basilicum of Linnæus, is not meant here, nor yet the leguminous plant that was known to the Romans by that name.
[1082] A singular superstition truly! Theophrastus says the same in relation to cummin seed.
[1083] This is not done at the present day.
[1084] This can hardly be our basil, the Ocimum basilicum, for that plant is an annual.