Of the following plants, too, it is only the leaves that are employed for chaplets—the flower of Jove,[2055] the amaracus, the hemerocalles,[2056] the abrotonum, the helenium,[2057] sisymbrium,[2058] 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.”[2059] 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.[2060] 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[2061] 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. CHAP. 34.—THE ABROTONUM. THE ADONIUM: TWO VARIETIES OF IT. PLANTS WHICH REPRODUCE THEMSELVES. THE LEUCANTHEMUM. The flower of the abrotonum,[2062] which makes its appearance in summer, has a powerful but agreeable smell; it is of a bright golden colour. Left to range at large, it reproduces itself by layers from the tops of the branches: but when it is propagated by the hand of man, it is better to grow it from the seed than from the roots or slips, though even from the seed it is not grown without considerable trouble. The young plants are transplanted in summer, which is the case also with the adonium.[2063] They are both of them plants of a very chilly nature, though, at the same time, they are apt to receive injury if too much exposed to the sun: when, however, they have gained sufficient strength, they throw out branches like those of rue. The leucanthemum[2064] has a similar smell to that of the abrotonum: it is a foliated plant, with a white flower. CHAP. 35. (11.)—TWO VARIETIES OF THE AMARACUS. Diocles, the physician, and the people of Sicily have given the name of “amaracus” to the plant known in Egypt and Syria as sampsuchum.[2065] It is reproduced two ways, from seed and from cuttings, being more long-lived than the preceding plants, and possessed of a more agreeable smell. The amaracus, like the abrotonum, has a great abundance of seed, but while the abrotonum has a single root, which penetrates deep into the ground, those of the other plant adhere but lightly to the surface of the earth. Those of the other plants which love the shade, water, and manure, are generally set at the beginning of autumn, and even, in some localities, in spring. CHAP. 36.—THE NYCTEGRETON, CHENOMYCHE, OR NYCTALOPS.