Latin Texts & Translations

Of the following plants, too, it is only the leaves that are employed for chaplets—the flower of Jove, ^[Note] the amaracus, the hemerocalles, ^[Note] the abrotonum, the helenium, ^[Note] sisymbrium, ^[Note] and wild thyme, all of them ligneous plants, growing in a manner similar to the rose. The flower of Jove is pleasing only for its colours, being quite inodorous; which is the case also with the plant known by the Greek name of "phlox." ^[Note] All the plants, too, which we have just mentioned are odoriferous, both in the branches and the leaves, with the sole exception of wild thyme. ^[Note] The helenium is said to have

had its origin in the tears of Helen, and hence it is that the kind grown in the island of Helena ^[Note] is so highly esteemed. It is a shrub which throws out its tiny branches along the ground, some nine inches in length, with a leaf very similar to that of wild thyme.