[1968] Because the essential oils evaporate more rapidly.
[1969] With Littré, we adopt the reading “ætate,” “mid-age,” and not “æstate,” “midsummer,” for although the assertion would be in general correct, Pliny would contradict the statement just made, that all plants have a more penetrating odour in spring. This reading is supported also by the text of Theophrastus.
[1970] Or saffron.
[1971] This is a just observation, but the instances might be greatly extended, as Fée says.
[1973] The white lily and the red lily. See c. [11] of this Book.
[1974] As to the Abrotonum, see B. xiii. c. 2, and c. [34] of this Book.
[1975] See c. [35] of this Book.
[1976] Or in other words, the interior of the petals has a more bitter flavour than that of the exterior surface.
[1977] Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus. De Causis, B. vi. c. 25. That author is speaking not of the flower, but of the rainbow, under the name of “iris.” Pliny has himself made a similar statement as to the rainbow, in B. xii. c. 52, which he would appear here to have forgotten.