The rose of Campania is early, that of Miletus late, but it is the rose of Præneste that goes off the very latest of all. For the rose, the ground is generally dug to a greater depth than it is for corn, but not so deep as for the vine. It grows but very slowly[1908] from the seed, which is found in the calyx beneath the petals of the flower, covered with a sort of down; hence it is that the method of grafting is usually the one preferred, or else propagation from the eyes of the root, as in the reed.[1909] One kind is grafted, which bears a pale flower, with thorny branches of a remarkable length; it belongs to the quinquefolia variety, being one of the Greek roses.[1910] All roses are improved by being pruned and cauterized; transplanting, too, makes them grow, like the vine, all the better, and with the greatest rapidity. The slips are cut some four fingers in length or more, and are planted immediately after the setting of the Vergiliæ; then, while the west winds are prevalent, they are transplanted at intervals of a foot, the earth being frequently turned up about them.
Persons whose object it is to grow early roses, make a hole a foot in width about the root, and pour warm water into it, at the period when the buds are beginning to put forth.[1911]
CHAP. 11. (5.)—THE LILY: FOUR VARIETIES OF IT.
The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose, and has a certain affinity[1912] with it in respect of its unguent and the oil extracted from it, which is known to us as “lirinon.”[1913] Blended, too, with roses, the lily[1914] produces a remarkably fine effect; for it begins to make its appearance, in fact, just as the rose is in the very middle of its season. There is no flower that grows to a greater height than the lily, sometimes, indeed, as much as three cubits; the head of it being always drooping, as though the neck of the flower were unable to support its weight. The whiteness of the lily is quite remarkable, the petals being striated on the exterior; the flower is narrow at the base, and gradually expanding in shape like a tapering[1915] cup with the edges curving outwards, the fine pistils of the flower, and the stamens with their antheræ of a saffron colour, standing erect in the middle.[1916] Hence the perfume of the lily, as well as its colour, is two-fold, there being one for the petals and another for the stamens. The difference, however, between them is but very small, and when the flower is employed for making lily unguents and oils, the petals are never rejected.
There is a flower, not unlike the lily, produced by the plant known to us as the “convolvulus.”[1917] It grows among shrubs, is totally destitute of smell, and has not the yellow antheræ of the lily within: only vying with it in its whiteness, it would almost appear to be the rough sketch[1918] made by Nature when she was learning how to make the lily. The white lily is propagated in all the various ways which are employed for the cultivation of the rose,[1919] as also by means of a certain tearlike gum[1920] which belongs to it, similarly to hipposelinum[1921] in fact: indeed, there is no plant that is more prolific than this, a single root often giving birth to as many as fifty bulbs.[1922] There is, also, a red lily, known by the name of “crinon”[1923] to the Greeks, though there are some authors who call the flower of it “cynorrodon.”[1924] The most esteemed are those of Antiochia and Laodicea in Syria, and next to them that of Phaselis.[1925] To the fourth rank belongs the flower that grows in Italy.
CHAP. 12.—THE NARCISSUS: THREE VARIETIES OF IT.
There is a purple[1926] lily, too, which sometimes has a double stem; it differs only from the other lilies in having a more fleshy root and a bulb of larger size, but undivided:[1927] the name given to it is “narcissus.”[1928] A second variety of this lily has a white flower, with a purple corolla. There is also this difference between the ordinary lily and the narcissus, that in the latter the leaves spring from the root of the plant. The finest are those which grow on the mountains of Lycia. A third variety is similar to the others in every respect, except that the corolla of the plant is green. They are all of them late[1929] flowers: indeed, they only bloom after the setting of Arcturus,[1930] and at the time of the autumnal equinox.
CHAP. 13.—HOW SEED IS STAINED TO PRODUCE TINTED FLOWERS.
There has been invented[1931] also a method of tinting the lily, thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions. The dried stalks[1932] of the lily are tied together in the month of July, and hung up in the smoke: then, in the following March, when the small knots[1933] are beginning to disclose themselves, the stalks are left to steep in the lees of black or Greek wine, in order that they may contract its colour, and are then planted out in small trenches, some semi-sextarii of wine-lees being poured around them. By this method purple lilies are obtained, it being a very remarkable thing that we should be able to dye a plant to such a degree as to make it produce a coloured flower.