that is to say, this fleshy or bark-like root, like squill, as well as the[1] roots which grow from this. For these roots not only differ in degree of stoutness, like those of trees and pot-herbs; they are of quite distinct classes.[2] This is at once quite evident in cuckoo-pint and galingale,[3] the root being in the one ease thick smooth and fleshy, in the other thin and fibrous. Wherefore we might question if such roots should be called 'roots'; inasmuch as they are under ground they would seem to be roots, but, inasmuch as they are of opposite character to other roots, they would not. For your root gets slenderer as it gets longer and tapers continuously[4] to a point; but the so-called root of squill purse-tassels and cuckoo-pint does just the opposite.
Again, while the others send out roots at the sides, this is not the case[5] with squill and purse-tassels, nor yet with garlic and onion, In general in these plants the roots which are attached to the 'head' in the middle appear to be real roots and receive nourishment,[6] and this 'head' is, as it were, an embryo or fruit; wherefore those who call such plants meats which reproduce themselves underground[7] give a fair account of them. In other kinds of plants there is nothing of this sort.[8] But a difficult question is raised, since here the 'root' has a character which goes beyond what one associates with roots. For it is not right to call all that which is underground 'root,' since in that ease the stalk[9] of purse-tassels and that of long onion and in general any part which is under.
- ↑ τὰς conj. Sch.; τῆς Ald.H.; τὴν . . . ἀποπεφυκυῖαν P.
- ↑ ἀλλ᾽ ἀλλοῖον ἔχουσι conj. St.; ἀλλὰ λεῖον ἔχοντες PMV Ald.; ἀλλοῖον ἐχ. mBas.mP from G; ἀλλ᾽ ἀλλοῖον ἔχουσαι conj. Scal.
- ↑ cf. 4.10.5.
- ↑ καὶ ἀεὶ Ald.; ἀεὶ καὶ conj. W.
- ↑ Plin. 19. 99.
- ↑ cf. the definition of 'root,' 1. 1. 9.
- ↑ ἐγγεότοκα λέγοντες conj. W.; cf. ἡ τῶν ἐγγεοτόκων τούτων γένεσις in Athenaeus' citation of this passage (2. 60); εντεοσ οισαλεγοντες U; ἒν τε τοῑς ὀστοῑς ἀλέγοντες MV (omitting τε) Ald. (omitting τοῑς).
- ↑ τοιοῡτο μὲν οὐδέν Conj. W.; τοῡτο μὲν MSS.
- ↑ ἄν ὁ καυλός conj. St.; ἀνάκαυλος Ald.
