[2608] At the beginning of this Chapter.
[2609] “Scorpion’s tail.” Dioscorides gives this name to the Helioscopium, or great Heliotropium.
[2610] Fée is surprised that no mention is made of its colouring properties, it being extremely rich in the colouring principle, and having been much used in former times for dyeing purposes.
[2611] This notion, Fée says, was long attached to the Heliotropium Europæum, and to it, it is indebted for its present name of “verrucaria.”
[2612] “Cortex seminis.”
[2613] Fée identifies it with the Asplenium trichomanes of Linnæus, spleen-wort, or ceterach. The Adiantum of Hippocrates and other Greek writers, he takes to be the Adiantum capillus Veneris of Linnæus, Venus’ hair, or maiden hair. Though Pliny would seem not to have been acquainted with the latter plant, he ascribes to the first one many of its properties and characteristics, deriving his information, probably, from a writer who was acquainted with both. See B. xxi. c. [60].
[2614] From ἀ, “not,” and διαίνω, “to wet.” This is owing, Fée remarks, to the coat of waxen enamel or varnish with which the leaves are provided. The same is the case also with the leaf of the cabbage and other plants.
[2615] The Asplenium trichomanes, Fée says, would not admit of being clipped for ornamental gardening.
[2616] “Fine hair,” and “thick hair.” These names originated more probably in the appearance of the plant than in any effects it may have produced as a dye for the hair.
[2617] On the contrary, Fée says, the root is composed of numerous fibres.