Note 1815 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

We learn from Hardouin, that there has been much discussion respecting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats the chorion, the membrane in which the fœtus has been enveloped, and afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with that of Aristotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that chorion here means the name of a plant, and they have proposed to substitute the word chorion for aros in the text.—B. Aros is probably the present “Arum maculatum,” or wake-robin. See p. 307, N. 1846.