[2178] Identified by Fée with the Atractylis of Dioscorides, the Carthamus mitissimus of Linnæus; the Carduncellus mitissimus of Decandolle.
[2179] From ἄτρακτος, “a distaff.”
[2180] The Centaurea lanata of Decandolle, the Centaurea benedicta of Linnæus.
[2181] The Asparagus aphylla of Linnæus: the leafless asparagus.
[2182] The Spartium scorpius of Linnæus: scorpion-grass, or scorpion-wort.
[2184] See B. xxii. c. [11]. The “sweet-root;” our liquorice. The Glycyrrhiza echinata of Linnæus bears a prickly fruit; it is of this, Fée thinks, that Pliny speaks here.
[2185] Fée remarks, that though the leaf of the nettle is furnished with numerous stings, or rather prickly hairs, it is quite wrong to look upon them as thorns, which Pliny, in the present instance, (though not in the next Chapter) appears to do. Genuine thorns, he remarks, are abortive branches, which, of course, cannot be said of the fine hairs springing from the nerves of the leaf. See B. xxii. c. [15].
[2186] Supposed to be the Tribulus terrestris of Linnæeus, a species of thistle: the leaves of this plant, however, are not provided, Fée remarks, with thorns at their base, the fruit alone being spinous. See c. [58] of this Book.