Note 1977 — BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS, AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.
John Bostock translation
Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus. De Causis, B. vi. c. 25. That author is speaking not of the flower, but of the rainbow, under the name of “iris.” Pliny has himself made a similar statement as to the rainbow, in B. xii. c. 52, which he would appear here to have forgotten.