CHAP. 33.—THE FLOWER OF JOVE. THE HEMEROCALLES. THE HELENIUM. THE PHLOX. PLANTS IN WHICH THE BRANCHES AND ROOTS ARE ODORIFEROUS.
Of the following plants, too, it is only the leaves that are
employed for chaplets—the flower of Jove,[1] the amaracus,
the hemerocalles,[2] the abrotonum, the helenium,[3]
sisymbrium,[4] 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."[5] 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.[6] 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[7] 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.
1. Supposed to be the same as the Agrostemma coronaria of Linnæus.
2. Sprengel identifies it with the Pancratium maritimum of Linnæus.
As described by Dioscorides, however, Fée takes it to be the
Lilium Martagon, or Turk's-cap lily. See c. 90 of this Book.
3. This is different from the Helenium of the Greeks, the Inula
Helenium of Linnæus, mentioned in B. xv. c. 7. Sprengel identifies
it with
the Teucrium Creticum of Linnæus, the Cretan germander.
4. See B. xx. c. 91.
5. "Flame." Sprengel identifies it with the Agrostemma coronaria of
Linnæus, making the flower of Jove to the Agrostemma flos Jovis.
6. Fée remarks, that if this is our Thymus serpyllum, this exception is
inexact.
7. For two islands of this name, see B. iv. c. 20, and c. 23.