Next in affinity to these plants are the bulbs,[1] which Cato, speaking in high terms of those of Megara,[2] recommends most particularly for cultivation. Among these bulbs, the squill,[3] we find, occupies the very highest rank, although by nature it is medicinal, and is employed for imparting an additional sharpness to vinegar:[4] indeed, there is no bulb known that grows to a larger size than this, or is possessed of a greater degree of pungency. There are two varieties of it employed in medicine, the male squill, which has white leaves, and the female squill, with black[5] ones. There is a third kind also, which is good to eat, and is known as the Epimenidian[6] squill; the leaf is narrower than in the other kinds, and not so rough. All the squills have numerous seeds, but they come up much more quickly if propagated from the offsets that grow on the sides. To make them attain a still greater size, the large leaves that grow around them are turned down and covered over with earth; by which method all the juices are carried to the heads. Squills grow spontaneously and in vast numbers in the Baleares and the island of Ebusus, and in the Spanish provinces.[7] The philosopher Pythagoras has written a whole volume on the merits of this plant, setting forth its various me- dicinal properties; of which we shall have occasion to speak more at length in the succeeding Book.[8]

The other species of bulbs are distinguished by their colour, size, and sweetness; indeed, there are some that are eaten raw even—those found in the Tauric Chersonesus, for instance. Next to these, the bulbs of Africa are held in the highest esteem, and after them those of Apulia. The Greeks have distinguished the following varieties: the bulbine,[9] the seta- nion,[10] the opition,[11] the cyix,[12] the leucoion,[13] the ægilips,[14] and the sisyrinchion[15]—in the last there is this remarkable feature, that the extremities of the roots increase in winter, but during the spring, when the violet appears, they diminish in size and gradually contract, and then it is that the bulb begins to increase in magnitude. Among the varieties of the bulb, too, there is the plant known in Egypt by the name of "aron."[16] In size it is very nearly as large as the squill, with a leaf like that of lapathum, and a straight stalk a couple of cubits in length, and the thickness of a walking-stick: the root of it is of a milder nature, so much so, indeed, as to admit of being eaten raw.

Bulbs are taken up before the spring, for if not, they are apt to spoil very quickly. It is a sign that they are ripe when the leaves become dry at the lower extremities. When too old they are held in disesteem; the same, too, with the long and the smaller ones; those, on the other hand, which are red and round are greatly preferred, as also those of the largest size. In most of them there is a certain degree of pungency in the upper part, but the middle is sweet. The ancients have stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the champaign country of Præneste they grow spontaneously, and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the Remi.[17]