[2598] Or “three-grained,” probably, Fée says, from the three cells in the capsule. He identifies this plant with the Croton tinctorium of Linnæus, the turnsole, or sun-flower.
[2599] Fée identifies it with the Heliotropium Europæum of Linnæus, the heliotrope, or verrucaria. The Heliotropium of Ovid and other poets, with a violet or blue flower, is, no doubt, a different plant, and is identified by Sprengel, Desfontaines, and Fée with the Hesperis matronalis of Linnæus, rocket or julian, or, as we not inaptly call it, from its pleasant smell, cherry-pie. Pliny speaks of his Heliotropium as having a “blue flower,” cœruleum. This is probably an error on his part, and it is supposed by commentators that he read in the Greek text ὑποπόρφυρον, “somewhat purple,” by mistake for ὑπόπυῤῥον, “somewhat red,” as we find it.
[2600] As known at the present day, they grow to a much greater height than this.
[2601] This, Fée remarks, cannot apply to either the Heliotropium Europæum or the Croton tinctorium. He thinks it not improbable that Pliny may have named one plant, and given a description of another.
[2602] The Heliotropium Europæum, Fée says, has no medicinal properties.
[2603] Midday, namely.
[2604] “Sic firmior.”
[2605] The “wart plant;” from “verruca,” a “wart.”
[2606] This notion arose probably, Fée thinks, from the clusters of its flowers resembling the tail of a scorpion in appearance.
[2607] Probably an inflammation of the membranes of the brain.