CHAP. 53.—FOUR VARIETIES OF THE CNECOS.
The Egyptians have many other plants also, of little note;
but they speak in the highest terms of the cnecos; [Note] a plant
unknown to Italy, and which the Egyptians hold in esteem,
not as an article of food, but for the oil it produces, and which
is extracted from the seed. The principal varieties are the
wild and the cultivated kinds; of the wild variety, again, the
are two sorts, one of which is less prickly [Note] than the other, but
with a similar stem, only more upright: hence it is that in
former times females used it for distaffs, from which circumstance it has received the name of "atractylis" [Note] from some;
the seed of it is white, large, and bitter. The other variety [Note]
is more prickly, and has a more sinewy stem, which may be
said almost to creep upon the ground; the seed is small. The
cnecos belongs to the thorny plants: indeed, it will be as well
to make some classification of them.