The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
All the odoriferous[1963] substances, and consequently the plants,
differ from one another in their colour, smell, and juices. It is but
rarely[1964] that the taste of an odoriferous substance is not bitter;
while sweet substances, on the other hand, are but rarely odoriferous.
Thus it is, too, that wine is more odoriferous than must, and all the
wild plants more so than the cultivated ones.[1965] Some flowers have
a sweet smell at a distance, the edge of which is taken off when they
come nearer; such is the case with the violet, for instance. The rose,
when fresh gathered, has a more powerful smell at a distance, and
dried,[1966] when brought nearer. All plants have a more penetrating
odour, also, in spring[1967] and in the morning; as the hour of midday
approaches, the scent becomes gradually weakened.[1968] The flowers,
too, of young plants are less odoriferous than those of old ones; but
it is at mid-age[1969] that the odour is most penetrating in them all.
The rose and the crocus[1970] have a more powerful smell when gathered
in fine weather, and all plants are more powerfully scented in hot
climates than in cold ones. In Egypt, however, the flowers are far
from odoriferous, owing to the dews and exhalations with which the air
is charged, in consequence of the extended surface of the river. Some
plants have an agreeable, though at the same time extremely powerful
smell; some, again, while green, have no[1971] smell at all, owing to
the excess of moisture, the buceros for example, which is the same as
fenugreek.[1972] Not all flowers which have a penetrating odour are
destitute of juices, the violet, the rose, and the crocus, for example;
those, on the other hand, which have a penetrating odour, but are
destitute of juices, have all of them a very powerful smell, as we find
the case with the two varieties[1973] of the lily. The abrotonum[1974]
and the amaracus[1975] have a pungent smell. In some plants, it is the
flower only that is sweet, the other parts being inodorous, the violet
and the rose, for example.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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