Dexeris

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Dexeris Dya. aut cestris a romanis gladiolus dicitur habet, folia iridi similia sed latiora et acutiora et astam in medio foliorum cubiti unius longitudine grossam in qua virge sunt capitella habentes semen eius in foliculis est simile cucumeris semen rotundum et nigrum gustu viscidum, radix est illi nodosa et longa et rufa, et cetera, in ca. alio de gladiolo deteris scribitur.

Concerning Dexeris Dyascorides says: Dexeris or they call it 'cestris', the Romans call it 'gladiolus', it has leaves similar to 'iris', but broader and more pointed, in the middle of the leaves is a stalk that is one cubit long and it is thick, and on its stalk there are little heads that have their seeds in pods, similar to cucumis {“cucumber”}, the seed is round and dark and of pungent taste; its root is knotty, long and reddsh, etc. And in another chapter with the title ‘de gladiolo’ {“On the gladiole”} it is witten as 'deteris'.


Commentary:

This chapter is made up of large excerpts from ultimately Dioscorides Longobardus, pp. 18/19, book IV, chapter XXII De xeris, with the heading obviously misinterpreted by Simon or his predecessors as one word: Dexeris. ‘xeris’ itself is a Vulgar Latin form of a more traditional xyris,idis, i.e. xўris > xĭris > xẹris. The word is borrowed from Greek where it has a large number of variants: ξυρίς /xyrís/, ξιρίς /xirís/, ξειρίς /xeirís/ and ξείρης /xeírēs/. The plant is often identified with "gladwyn, Iris foetidissima”.


See Cestras, Deteris, Gladiolus, Xifion.