Radishes are composed of an outer coat and a cartilaginous substance, and in many instances the rind is found to be thicker than the bark of some trees. This plant is remarkable for its pungency, which increases in proportion to the thickness of the rind: in some cases, too, the surface of it assumes a ligneous nature. Radishes are flatulent[993] to a remarkable degree, and are productive of eructations; hence it is that they are looked upon as an aliment only fit for low-bred people,[994] and this more particularly if coleworts are eaten directly after them. If, on the other hand, they are eaten with green olives, the eructations produced are not so frequent, and less offensive. In Egypt the radish is held in very high esteem, on account of the abundance of oil[995] that is extracted from the seed. Indeed, the people of that country sow this plant in preference to any other, whenever they can get the opportunity, the profits derived from it being larger than those obtained from the cultivation of corn, and the imposts levied upon it considerably less: there is no grain known that yields a larger quantity of oil. The Greeks have distinguished the radish[996] into three different kinds, according to the characteristic features of the leaves, there being the crisped leaf, the smooth leaf, and the wild radish, the leaf of which is smooth, but shorter than that of the others; it is round also, grows in great abundance, and spreads like a shrub. The taste of this last variety is acrid, and it acts medicinally as a strong purgative. In the first kind, again, there are certain differences, determined by the seed, for in some varieties the seed is of an inferior quality, and in others remarkably small: these defects, however, are only found to exist in the kind that has the crisped leaf. Our own people, again, have found other varieties of the radish: there is the Algidan[997] radish, long and transparent, so called from the place of its growth: another, similar to the rape in form, is known as the Syrian radish; it is pretty nearly the mildest and the most tender of them all, and is well able to bear the winter. The very best of all, however, is the one that has been brought from Syria, very recently it would seem, as we do not find it mentioned by any of our writers: it lasts the whole of the winter through. In addition to these kinds, there is another, a wild variety, known by the Greeks as “agrion,”[998] and to the people of Pontus as “armon,” while others, again, call it “leuce,”[999] and our people “armoracia;”[1000] it has more leaves, however, than root. In testing the quality of the radish, it is the stem more particularly, that is looked at; in those which are acrid to the taste, for instance, it is rounder and thicker than in the others, and grooved with long channels, while the leaves are more unsightly to the eye, being angular and covered with prickles.