In Egypt, next to the colocasia, it is the cichorium that is held in the highest esteem, a plant which we have already spoken[2156] of under the name of wild endive.[2157] It springs up after the rising of the Vergiliæ, and the various portions of it blossom in succession: the root is supple, and hence is used for making withes even. The anthalium[2158] grows at a greater distance[2159] from the river; the fruit of it is round,[2160] and about the size of a medlar, but without either kernel or rind; the leaves of the plant are similar to those of the cyperus. The people there eat the fruit of it cooked upon the fire, as also of the œtum,[2161] a plant which has a few leaves only, and those extremely diminutive, though the root is large in proportion.[2162] The arachidna,[2163] again, and the aracos have numerous branchy roots, but neither leaves nor any herbaceous parts, nor, indeed, anything that makes its appearance above ground. The other plants that are commonly eaten in Egypt are the chondrylla,[2164] the hypochœris,[2165] the caucalis,[2166] the anthriscum,[2167] the scandix, the come, by some persons known as the tragopogon,[2168] with leaves very similar to those of saffron, the parthenium,[2169] the trychnum,[2170] and the corchorus;[2171] with the aphace[2172] and acynopos,[2173] which make their appearance at the equinox. There is a plant also, called the epipetron,[2174] which never blossoms;[2175] while the aphace, on the other hand, as its flowers die, from time to time puts forth fresh ones, and remains[2176] in blossom throughout the winter and the spring, until the following summer. 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;[2177] 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, there are two sorts, one of which is less prickly[2178] 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”[2179] from some; the seed of it is white, large, and bitter. The other variety[2180] 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. CHAP. 54.—PLANTS OF A PRICKLY NATURE: THE ERYNGE, THE GLYCYRRIZA, THE TRIBULUS, THE ANONIS, THE PHEOS OR STŒBE, AND THE HIPPOPHAES.