[1958] The whole of this passage is from Theophrastus, De Odorib.
[1959] This statement, though borrowed from Theophrastus, is not consistent with fact. The root of saffron is not more long-lived than any other bulbs of the Liliaceæ.
[1960] Because, Dalechamps says, all the juices are thereby thrown back into the root, which consequently bears a stronger flower the next year.
[1961] Il. xiv. l. 348.
[1962] see B. xiii. c. 32.
[1963] All these statements as to the odours of various substances, are from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. vi. c. 22.
[1964] He does not say, however, that it is but rarely that a bitter substance is not odoriferous; a sense in which Fée seems to have understood him, as he says, “This assertion is not true in general, and there are numerous exceptions; for instance, quassia wood, which is inodorous and yet intensely bitter.” The essential oil, he remarks, elaborated in the tissue of the corolla, is the ordinary source of the emanations of the flower.
[1965] Fée remarks that cultivation gives to plants a softer and more aqueous consistency, which is consequently injurious to the developement of the essential oil.
[1966] Theophrastus, from whom this is borrowed, might have said with more justice, Fée remarks, that certain roses have more odour when dried than when fresh gathered. Such is the case, he says, with the Provence rose. Fresh roses, however, have a more pronounced smell, the nearer they are to the olfactory organs.
[1967] This is by no means invariably the case: in fact, the smell of most odoriferous plants is most powerful in summer.