Note 1942 — BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS, AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.

See B. xii. c. 26. Fée is inclined to coincide with Ruellius, and to identify this with the Digitalis purpurea, clown’s spikenard, or our Lady’s gloves. The only strong objection to this is the fact that the root of the digitalis has a very faint but disagreeable smell, and not at all like that of cinnamon. But then, as Fée says, we have no positive proof that the “cinnamomum” of the ancients is identical with our cinnamon. See Vol. iii. p. 138. Sprengel takes the “bacchar” of Virgil to be the Valeriana Celtica, and the “baccharis” of the Greeks to be the Gnaphalium sanguineum, a plant of Egypt and Palestine. The bacchar has been also identified with the Asperula odorata of Linnæus, the Geum urbanum of Linnæus (the root of which has the smell of cloves), the Inula Vaillantii, the Salvia Sclarea, and many other plants.