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CHAP. 60.—PLANTS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THEIR LEAVES. PLANTS WHICH NEVER LOSE THEIR LEAVES: PLANTS WHICH BLOSSOM A LITTLE AT A TIME: THE HELIOTROPIUM AND THE ADIANTUM, THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WHICH WILL BE MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOWING BOOK.

The leaves of plants, as well as those of trees, differ from one another in the length of the footstalk, and in the breadth or narrowness of the leaf, and the angles and indentations perceptible on its edge. Other differences are also constituted in respect of their smell and blossom. The blossom remains on longer in some of those plants which flower only a little at a time, such as the ocimum,1 the heliotropium,2 the aphace, and the onochilis,3 for example.

(17.) Many of these plants, the same as certain among the trees, never lose their leaves, the heliotropium,4 the adiantum5 and the polium,6 for instance.

1 See B. xix. cc. 31, 36, and 44; and B. xx. c. 48. The ocimum of the Greeks has been identified by some with the Ocimum basilicum of Lin- næus, our basil. That of the Romans seems to have been a name given to one or more varieties of leguminous plants of the vetch kind.

2 The Heliotropium Europæum. See B. xxii. c. 29.

3 This plant has not been identified, but Fée is inclined, from what Dioscorides says, B. iv. c. 24, to identify it with either the Lithospermum fruticosum, or else the Anchusa Italic of Linnæus.

4 This is not the case, if this plant is identical with the Heliotropium Europæum, that being an annual.

5 The Adiantum Capillus Veneris of Linnæus, or the Asplenium trichomanes of Linnæus. "Venus hair, or coriander maiden hair; others name it to be well fern."—T. Cooper. The leaves of these plants last the whole of their lives.

6 The Teucrium polium of Linnæus, our poley; the leaves of which are remarkably long-lived.

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