Silaus

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Silaus Plinius nascitur glariosis et perennibus rivis cubitalis apii similitudine et cetera.


Apparatus:

Silaus AC ep | Sillaus j | Silans f | Sillãs B
glariosis AC ep | gloriosis fj | gl’iosis B
perennibus AC f | perenibus j | perhẽnibus ms. e | perempnibus p | parietibus B
et cetera om. ef


Translation:

Silaus; Pliny says that it grows in rivers that are gravelly and do not dry out; it is a cubit high, similar to apium {"celery"}.


Commentary:

Simon's entry is a verbatim quote from Pliny, 26, 56, 88, ed. Rackham (1938-63: VII.330).

Silaus:
only occurs in this chapter in Pliny and nowhere else in the literature; its description is too short to make any certain botanical identification. However most authors think that it must be some species of the genus Apium {“celery”}.

Silaus survived into botanical Latin as in Silaum silaus (L.) Schinz & Thell., "Pepper-saxifrage", a plant with a near pan-European distribution. There is no evidence to connect it to the Plinian silaus.


WilfGunther (talk) 11:40, 22 February 2016 (GMT)


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