Pliny the Elder, Natural History 18.96

18.96

Aestiva frumenta diximus sesamam, milium, panicum. sesama ab Indis venit. ex ea et oleum faciunt; colos eius candidus. huic simile est in Asia Graeciaque erysimum, idemque erat, nisi pinguius esset, quod apud nos vocant irionem, medicaminibus adnumerandum potius quam frugibus. eiusdem naturae ethorminum Graecis dictum , sed cumino simile; seritur cum sesama. hac et irione nullum animal vescitur virentibus.

CHAP. 22.—SESAME. ERYSIMUM, OR IRIO. HORMINUTM. We have spoken of sesame, millet, and panic as belonging to the summer grains. Sesame comes from India, where they extract an oil from it; the colour of its grain is white. Similar in appearance to this is the erysimum of Asia and Greece, and indeed it would be identical with it were it not that the grain is better filled. It is the same grain that is known among us as "irio;" and strictly speaking, ought rather to be classed among the medicaments than the cereals. Of the same nature, too, is the plant called "horminum" by the Greeks, though resembling cummin in appearance; it is sown at the same time as sesame: no animal will eat either this or irio while green.