[1918] “Rudimentum.” She must have set to work in a very roundabout way, Fée thinks, and one in which it would be quite impossible for a naturalist to follow her.
[1919] The white lily is reproduced from the offsets of the bulbs; and, as Fée justly remarks, it is highly absurd to compare the mode of cultivation with that of the rose, which is propagated from slips.
[1920] This absurd notion is derived from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ii. c. 2, and B. vi. c. 6.
[1922] The root really consists of certain fine fibres, to which the bulbs, or rather cloves or offsets, are attached.
[1923] Judging from what Theocritus says, in his 35th Idyl, the “crinon” would appear to have been a white lily. Sprengel, however, takes the red lily of Pliny to be the scarlet lily, the Lilium Chalcedonicum of Linnæus.
[1924] Or “dog-rose:” name now given to one of the wild roses.
[1925] See B. xiii. c. 9.
[1926] Fée remarks, that it is singular that Pliny, as also Virgil, Ecl. v. l. 38, should have given the epithet “purpureus” to the Narcissus. It is owing, Fée says, to the red nectary of the flower, which is also bordered with a very bright red.
[1927] Into cloves or offsets.