Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/280

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first picked it, who was called Helichrysa. There are also, says Theophrastus, such flowers as purple lilies. But Philinus says that the lily, which he calls [Greek: krinon], is by some people called [Greek: leirion], and by others [Greek: ion]. The Corinthians also call this flower ambrosia, as Nicander says in his Dictionary. And Diocles, in his treatise on Deadly Poisons, says—"The amaracus, which some people call the sampsychus."

28. Cratinus also speaks of the hyacinth by the name of [Greek: kosmosandalon] in his Effeminate People, where he says—

I crown my head with flowers, [Greek: leiria],
Roses, and [Greek: krina], and [Greek: kosmosandala].

And Clearchus, in the second book of his Lives, says—"You may remark the Lacedæmonians who, having invented garlands of cosmosandalum, trampled under foot the most ancient system of polity in the world, and utterly ruined themselves; on which account Antiphanes the comic poet very cleverly says of them, in his Harp-player—

Did not the Lacedæmonians boast of old
As though they were invincible? but now
They wear effeminate purple head-dresses.

And Hicesius, in the second book of his treatise on Matter, says—"The white violet is of moderately astringent properties, and has a most delicious fragrance, and is very delightful, but only for a short time; and the purple violet is of the same appearance, but it is far more fragrant." And Apollodorus, in his treatise on Beasts, says—"There is the chamæpitys, or ground pine, which some call olocyrum, but the Athenians call it Ionia, and the Eubœans sideritis." And Nicander, in the second book of his Georgics, (the words themselves I will quote hereafter, when I thoroughly discuss all the flowers fit for making into garlands,) says—"The violet ([Greek: ion]) was originally given by some Ionian nymphs to Ion."

And in the sixth book of his History of Plants, Theophrastus says that the narcissus is also called [Greek: leirion]; but in a subsequent passage he speaks of the narcissus and [Greek: leirion] as different plants. And Eumachus the Corcyrean, in his treatise on Cutting Roots, says that the narcissus is also called acacallis, and likewise crotalum. But the flower called hemerocalles, or day-beauty, which fades at night but blooms