Helix Chapter Summary

Improved Essays
In the sections I was assigned of The Natural History, Pliny goes on to talk about the Helix and its characteristics, different types of Ivy and how they vary from one another, Smilax, and water plants and how people had different uses of them. For example, people used Reed to make arrows. This paper will provide a summary on what Pliny touched upon in passage 334, as well as problems that may arise with Pliny’s depiction of these plants. This paper will also touch on who Pliny was and whether or not he is furthering his knowledge or simply repeating what he has heard.
In book XVI, Pliny talks about how the Helix differs in the size of its leaves, and how it has the most varieties of all. He goes on about how the leaves are small and have
…show more content…
It has thick jointed stems, and very thorny branches that make it into a shrub of some sort and has leaves that resemble the leaves of an ivy but they are small and have no corners. It also throws out vines from its stem. The flower is white and is said to have the scent of a lily (Pliny, XVI, 487). The smilax grows berries that are red in color, and Pliny says that the larger ones have three hard black stones within them but the smaller berries only have one stone. Apparently, this plant is very unlucky when it comes to sacred rites because it has a very desolate association; a maiden named Smilax was turned into a shrub because of her love for a youth named Crocus. People who don’t know this story often use this plant to decorate festivals because they think it is ivy. Smilax is used for making tablets, and apparently something about that wood gives out a slight of sound when you place it close to your ear. It is also said that ivy is very good for testing wine, in a way that a vessel is made of its wood that lets wine pass through it, and when water is mixed with the wine, it stops the vessel (Pliny, XVI, …show more content…
Many people used reed to make arrows, as it was a way of hastening the approach of death. The point of adding reeds to arrows was because of their barb, which dealt extra wounds to their enemies, and was something that could not be extracted from the enemies wound. It is said that these weapons “obscure the very rays of the sun” and which is why they wanted calm weather, because bad weather made them want to keep peace (Pliny, XVI, 491). Pliny goes on to say that Italy had won the war, because the reed that grows from the river in Bologna trumped all other reeds that were suitable for an arrow. The Reno reed contains the largest amount of pith, it has the best flying weight and a great balance make it the superior reed. Even then, it is said that the reeds from India are placed as the best reed of them all, making some people believe that they belong to a different species (Pliny, XVI,

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Rainbow 's End: very renowned author, Maury Klein, writes The Crash of 1929. Klein perhaps could have chosen a more suitable title for this book, but it got his ideas and perceptions of the market crash of 1929 with an intense and gripping fashion. The book tells the story of the stock market crash, also known as “Black Thursday”. Klein is known to be an author of many books on personalities and institutions, which have often taken, center stage in American business, focuses here on financial events and trends leading up to the stock market crash. Klein is a professor of history at the University of Rhode Island who uses this book to introduce the journey of 1920’s through his vision.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Assault on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village is a revision in ethnography use of Conrad Kottak’s time during the rapid iconic and social change in Arembepe, Brazil. Conrad Phillip Kottak, now a Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Michigan decided to go out and explore the village of Arembepe, Brazil. During that time, he was a participant in the Colombia Summer Field Studies program in Anthropology, as an undergraduate. During his time in the village, beginning in 1962, he explored the culture of anthropology in Arembepe, a fishing village close to the coast in Brazil. Exploring anthropological views, we see how the impact of modernization, mass media, and events that occurred in the community affected during the 1900’s.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is an interesting novel where Johann Hari, the author tells his story of being drawn to addicts and recovering addicts. His feeling of being drawn to these addicts made it possible for him to travel all over the world. I am going to break this novel into three different themes that I saw Hari make. The first theme that I thought was interesting and not surprising is that race plays a huge part in who is to be arrested and or convicted of a crimes because of their race. Secondly, I wanted to focus on one of the program that John Marks set up for heroin addicts where he discovers a breakthrough.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation was involved in the Civil War as a “foreign ally.” Their location was on Confederate lands, which made them an ally of the rebellion. The Confederacy was highly outnumbered by the Union, so the Cherokee Nation was a benefit for the Confederacy. The weapons they invented were new to the Confederacy, but they quickly learned because it was their only shot at becoming less outnumbered with weapons.…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feces and Morphine “War means fighting, and fighting means killing,” said Nathan Bedford Forrest. The Civil War, a time of death, despair, and a lot of medical practice. In the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, it talks about the Civil War and it talks about many injuries in the Civil War. Some of the people in the who got hurt or were in need of medical attention were Dick Garnett, Stonewall Jackson, and John Henry. They all had something go wrong with them, either internally or externally.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This genus is interesting in that it has an unusually disjunct distribution; its only other members are found within the Mediterranean region of southern Italy and France. 4.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Returning to Devon for the first time in fifteen years, Gene oddly finds it looking “newer than when I was a student” (page 1). He contains a certain amount of sentimentality for the school of his childhood, a place where he had many times of joy and mischief. Returning to Devon brings back many memories for Gene, like jumping off the “forbidden tree,” “blitzball,” and missing meals. However, there is a sense of darkness in the beginning. It is raining, cold, and gloomy, the dominant feeling for Gene on his return.…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alpha Chapter Summary

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Most Improved Chapter Award Entering the school year, the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. sought to close the community engagement gap between the Hill and Greater Ithaca. The members of Alpha made it their goal to serve as role models for young children from minority backgrounds living in the more urban areas. The Chapter in collaboration with Southside Community Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Black Students United organized a holiday festival to create a space for young boys and girls of color in Ithaca to be able to interact and celebrate the spirit of the holidays with students at Cornell. Meaningful connections were made simply by delighting together in arts and crafts.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    1984 Chapter Summary

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The economy that has been established in Oceania is a socialist economy is a system where goods and services are shared equally and responsibly to a group of people. The many goods and foods are rationed to people equally. In part 1 chapter 3, coupons are distributed to outer party members to purchase items. Everything was counted for, they could not buy more food if they wanted too. Supplies were so scarce that they would run out of things such as razors like it was mentioned on page 59.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Chapter 1: Third I. SUMMARY The first chapter begins with two people talking about a boy and if he is ready to help save the world from buggers. They don’t seem sure because of there past results with his brother and sister. Then the story goes to Ender and how he is happy to get a monitor the government uses to see through his eyes out of his neck because it made him an outcast. His brother Peter especially hates him because Ender had the monitor one year longer and Ender thinks with the monitor gone Peter would be nicer but he realizes Peter wont change.…

    • 2460 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Chapter 7-10

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chapters 7-10 are all centered around Ben’s accomplishments, including his college years, meeting his wife, and the beginning of his journey of becoming a doctor. In chapter 7, he joined the ROTC program late, but managed to make his way up to the highest position. Even at a field examination, he made the highest score anyone had ever made at his school. Because of his achievements within this program he got many scholarship offers, but turned all of them down because of his determination to become a doctor. In chapter 8, he faced a hard decision on which school to attend, Harvard or Yale.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the beginning of the novel, Ender was violent. In the first chapter of the novel Ender gets into a fight and brutally beats another kid after he already winning the fight but later feels bad and cries about his actions. Ender cries after his fight with the bully even after he won because his actions reminded him of his brother and Ender doesn’t want to be filled with violence like his brother. In the middle of the novel, Ender is accepted into battle school for passing his monitor test.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote two short stories: “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”; which show how nature and science can both be positive and negative. But while they are written by the same author and have the same general message, when looking deeply at the texts, a different theme and narrative can arise. The stories of “The Birthmark”, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, and the poem “The Tables Turned” show the different facets of the struggle of science versus nature, while emphasizing the pursuit of perfection, examining outside influences, and discovering connections between the two stories. In examining the struggle of science vs. nature, we must first analyze each story by itself, and recognize its relationship.…

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book that I chose to read is called Bossypants by Tina Fey. I chose this book because of my interest in Tina Fey as an actress. I think that she is a perfect mix between comical and intelligent. I am very glad that I chose this book because I was able to learn about Fey’s life while laughing along the way. This book is a compilation of chapters that describe Fey’s life growing up.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many thoughts that come to mind when reading the third chapter Lumen Gentium. The phrase known as People of God is used when entitling those who come together in commencement to worship God. Some examples of a group of the People of God are the First Vatican Council and the Sacred Council. The church is widespread throughout the world but we all worship the same God. He stated that you “shall not have any other Gods before me” in reference to how we put Him first.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays