cord beneath the branches of the tree, to the great risk of stifling
it; for it ought to be merely kept up with a withe of osier, and not
tightly laced. Indeed, in those places where the willow abounds, the
withes that it affords are preferred, on account of their superior
suppleness, while the Sicilians employ for the purpose a grass, which
they call “ampelodesmos:”[3160] throughout the whole of Greece, rushes,
cyperus, and sedge[3161] are similarly employed. When at any time the
vine has been liberated from its bonds, it should be allowed to range
uncontrolled for some days, and to spread abroad at pleasure, as well
as to recline upon the ground which it has been looking down upon the
whole year through. For in the same manner that beasts of burden when
released from the yoke, and dogs when they have returned from the
chase, love to roll themselves on the ground, just so does the vine
delight to stretch its loins. The tree itself, too, seems to rejoice,
and, thus relieved from the continuous weight which has burdened it,
to have all the appearance of now enjoying a free respiration. Indeed,
there is no object in all the economy of Nature that does not desire
certain alternations for the enjoyment of rest, witness the succession
of night and day, for instance. It is for this reason that it is
forbidden to prune the vine directly the vintage is over, and while it
is still exhausted by the process of reproduction.
Directly the vine has been pruned, it ought to be fastened again to
the tree, but in another place; for there is no doubt that it feels
very acutely the indentations that are made in it by the holdfasts. In
the Gallic method of cultivation they train out two branches at either
side, if the trees are forty feet apart, and four if only twenty; where
they meet, these branches are fastened together and made to grow in
unison; if, too, they are anywhere deficient in number or strength,
care is taken to fortify them by the aid of small rods. In a case,
however, where the branches are not sufficiently long to meet, they
are artificially prolonged by means of a hook, and so united to the
tree that desires their company. The branches thus trained to unite
they used to prune at the end of the second year. But where the vine
is aged, it is a better plan to give them a longer time to reach the
adjoining tree, in case they should not have gained the requisite
thickness; besides which, it is always good to encourage the growth of
the hard wood in the dragon branches.
There is yet another method,[3162] which occupies a middle place
between this mode of propagation and that by layers. It consists of
laying the entire vine in the earth, and then splitting the stock
asunder by means of wedges; the fibrous portions are then trained out
in as many furrows, care being taken to support each of the slender
plants by fastening it to a stake, and not to cut away the branches
that shoot from the sides. The growers of Novara, not content with
the multitude of shoots that run from tree to tree, nor yet with an
abundance of branches, encourage the stock-branches to entwine around
forks planted in the ground for the purpose; a method, however, which,
in addition to the internal defects arising from the soil, imparts a
harshness to the wine.
There is another fault, too, that is committed by the people of
Varracina,[3163] near Rome—they only prune their vines every other
year; not, indeed, because it is advantageous to the tree, but from
a fear lest, from the low prices fetched by their wines, the expense
might exceed the profits. At Carseoli they adopt a middle course, by
pruning away only the rotten parts of the vine, as well as those which
are beginning to wither, and leaving the rest to bear fruit, after thus
clearing away all superfluous incumbrances. The only nutriment they
give it is this exemption from frequent pruning; but unless the soil
should happen to be a very rich one, the vine, under such a method of
cultivation, will very soon degenerate to a wild state.
The vine that is thus trained requires the ground to be ploughed very
deep, though such is not the case for the sowing there of grain. It is
not customary to cut away the leaves in this case, which, of course,
is so much labour spared. The trees themselves require pruning at the
same period as the vine, and are thinned by clearing away all useless
branches, and such parts as would only absorb the nutriment. We have
already[3164] stated that the parts that are lopped should never look
north or south: and it will be better still, if they have not a western
aspect. The wounds thus made are very susceptible for a considerable
time, and heal with the greatest difficulty, if exposed to excesses of
cold or heat. The vine when trained on a tree enjoys advantages that
are not possessed by the others; for the latter have certain fixed
aspects, while in the former, it is easy to cover up the wounds made
in pruning, or to turn them whichever way you please. When trees are
pruned at the top, cup-like cavities should be formed[3165] there, to
prevent the water from lodging.
CHAP. 36.—HOW GRAPES ARE PROTECTED FROM THE RAVAGES OF INSECTS.
Stays, too, should be given to the vine for it to take hold of and
climb upwards, if they are taller than it. (24.) Espaliers[3166]
for vines of a high quality should be cut, it is said, at the
Quinquatria,[3167] and when it is intended to keep the grapes, while
the moon is on the wane. We are assured, moreover, that those which
are cut at the change of the moon, are exempt from the attacks of all
insects.[3168] According to another system, it is said that vines
should be pruned by night at full moon, and while it is in Leo,
Scorpio, Sagittarius, or Taurus: and that, in general, they ought to be
planted either when the moon is at full or on the increase. In Italy,
ten workmen will suffice for one hundred jugera of vineyard.
CHAP. 37.—THE DISEASES OF TREES.
Having now treated sufficiently at length of the planting and
cultivation of trees—(for we have already said enough of the palm[3169]
and the cytisus,[3170] when speaking of the exotic trees)—we shall
proceed, in order that nothing may be omitted, to describe other
details relative to their nature, which are of considerable importance,
when taken in connection with all that precedes. Trees, we find, are
attacked by maladies; and, indeed, what created thing is there that is
exempt from these evils? Still however, the affections of the forest
trees, it is said, are not attended[3171] with danger to them, and the
only damage they receive is from hail-storms while they are budding and
blossoming; with the exception, indeed, of being nipped either by heat
or cold blasts in unseasonable weather; for frost, when it comes at the
proper times, as we have already stated,[3172] is serviceable to them.
“Well but,” it will be said, “is not the vine sometimes killed with
cold?” No doubt it is, and this it is through which we detect inherent
faults in the soils, for it is only in a cold soil that the vine will
die. Just in the same way, too, in winter we approve of cold, so long
as it is the cold of the weather, and not of the ground. It is not the
weakest trees, too, that are endangered in winter by frost, but the
larger ones. When they are thus attacked, it is the summit that dries
away the first, from the circumstance that the sap becomes frozen
before it is able to arrive there.
Some diseases of trees are common to them all, while others, again,
are peculiar to individual kinds. Worms[3173] are common to them all,
and so, too, is sideration,[3174] with pains in the limbs,[3175] which
are productive of debility in the various parts. Thus do we apply the
names of the maladies that prevail among mankind to those with which
the plants are afflicted. In the same way, too, we speak of their
bodies being mutilated, the eyes of the buds being burnt up, with
many other expressions of a similar nature. It is in accordance with
the same phraseology that we say that trees are afflicted with hunger
or indigestion, both of which result from the comparative amount of
sap that they contain; while some, again, are troubled with obesity,
as in the case of all the resinous trees, which, when suffering from
excessive fatness, are changed into a torch-tree.[3176] When the roots,
too, begin to wax fat, trees, like animals, are apt to perish from
excess of fatness. Sometimes, too, a pestilence[3177] will prevail in
certain classes of trees, just as among men, we see maladies attack, at
one time the slave class, and at another the common people, in cities
or in the country, as the case may be.
Trees are more or less attacked by worms; but still, nearly all are
subject to them in some degree, and this the birds[3178] are able to
detect by the hollow sound produced on tapping at the bark. These worms
even have now begun to be looked upon as delicacies[3179] by epicures,
and the large ones found in the robur are held in high esteem; they are
known to us by the name of “cossis;” and are even fed with meal, in
order to fatten them! But it is the pear, the apple, and the fig[3180]
that are most subject to their attacks, the trees that are bitter and
odoriferous enjoying a comparative exemption from them. Of those which
infest the fig, some breed in the tree itself, while others, again, are
produced by the worm known as the cerastes; they all, however, equally
assume the form of the cerastes,[3181] and emit a small shrill noise.
The service-tree is infested, too, with a red hairy worm, which kills
it; and the medlar, when old, is subject to a similar malady.
The disease known as sideration entirely depends upon the heavens;
and hence we may class under this head, the ill effects produced
by hail-storms, carbunculation,[3182] and the damage caused by
hoar-frosts. When the approach of spring tempts the still tender
shoots to make their appearance, and they venture to burst forth, the
malady attacks them, and scorches up the eyes of the buds, filled as
they are with their milky juices: this is what upon flowers they call
“charcoal”[3183] blight. The consequences of hoar-frost to plants are
even more dangerous still, for when it has once settled, it remains
there in a frozen form, and there is never any wind to remove it,
seeing that it never prevails except in weather that is perfectly calm
and serene. Sideration, however, properly so called, is a certain heat
and dryness that prevails at the rising of the[3184] Dog-star, and
owing to which grafts and young trees pine away and die, the fig and
the vine more particularly. The olive, also, besides the worm, to which
it is equally subject with the fig, is attacked by the measles,[3185]
or as some think fit to call it, the fungus or platter; it is a sort
of blast produced by the heat of the sun. Cato[3186] says that the red
moss[3187] is also deleterious to the olive. An excessive fertility,
too, is very often injurious to the vine and the olive. Scab is a
malady common to all trees. Eruptions,[3188] too, and the attacks of
a kind of snail that grows on the bark, are diseases peculiar to the
fig, but not in all countries; for there are some maladies that are
prevalent in certain localities only.
In the same way that man is subject to diseases of the sinews, so are
the trees as well, and, like him, in two different ways. Either[3189]
the virulence of the disease manifests itself in the feet, or, what
is the same thing, the roots of the tree, or else in the joints of
the fingers, or, in other words, the extremities of the branches that
are most distant from the trunk. The parts that are thus affected
become dry and shrivel up: the Greeks have appropriate names[3190] by
which to distinguish each of these affections. In either case the
first symptoms are that the tree is suffering from pain, and the parts
affected become emaciated and brittle; then follows rapid consumption
and ultimately death; the juices being no longer able to enter the
diseased parts, or, at all events, not circulating in them. The fig is
more particularly liable to this disease: but the wild fig is exempt
from all that we have hitherto mentioned. Scab[3191] is produced by
viscous dews which fall after the rising of the Vergiliæ; but if they
happen to fall copiously, they drench the tree, without making the bark
rough. When the fig is thus attacked, the fruit falls off while green;
and so, too, if there is too much rain. The fig suffers also from a
superfluity of moisture in the roots.
In addition to worms and sideration, the vine is subject to a peculiar
disease of its own, which attacks it in the joints, and is produced
from one of the three following causes:—either the destruction
of the buds by stormy weather, or else the fact, as remarked by
Theophrastus, that the tree, when pruned, has been cut with the
incisions upwards,[3192] or has been injured from want of skill in
the cultivator. All the injury that is inflicted in these various
ways is felt by the tree in the joints more particularly. It must be
considered also as a species of sideration, when the cold dews make
the blossoms fall off, and when the grapes harden[3193] before they
have attained their proper size. Vines also become sickly when they
are perished with cold, and the eyes are frost-bitten just after they
have been pruned. Heat, too, out of season, is productive of similar
results: for everything is regulated according to a fixed order and
certain determinate movements. Some maladies, too, originate in
errors committed by the vine-dresser; when they are tied too tight,
for instance, as already mentioned,[3194] or when in trenching round
them the digger has struck them an unlucky blow, or when in ploughing
about them the roots have been strained through carelessness, or the
bark has been stripped from off the trunk: sometimes, too, contusions
are produced by the use of too blunt a pruning-knife. Through all the
causes thus enumerated the tree is rendered more sensitive to either
cold or heat, as every injurious influence from without is apt to
concentrate in the wounds thus made. The apple, however, is the most
delicate of them all, and more particularly the one that bears the
sweetest fruit. In some trees weakness induced by disease is productive
of barrenness, and does not kill the tree; as in the pine[3195] for
instance, or the palm, when the top of the tree has been removed; for
in such case the tree becomes barren, but does not die. Sometimes, too,
the fruit itself is sickly, independently of the tree; for example,
when there is a deficiency of rain, or of warmth, or of wind, at the
periods at which they usually prevail, or when, on the other hand, they
have prevailed in excess; for in such cases the fruit will either drop
off or else deteriorate. But the worst thing of all that can befall
the vine or the olive, is to be pelted with heavy showers just when
the tree is shedding its blossom, for then the fruit is sure to fall
off[3196] as well.
Rain, too, is productive of the caterpillar, a noxious insect that
eats away the leaves, and, some of them, the blossoms as well; and
this in the olive even, as we find the case at Miletus; giving to the
half-eaten tree a most loathsome appearance. This pest is produced by
the prevalence of a damp, languid heat; and if the sun should happen to
shine after this with a more intense heat and burn them up, this pest
only gives place to another[3197] just as bad, the aspect only of the
evil being changed.
There is still one other affection that is peculiar to the olive and
the vine, known as the “cobweb,”[3198] the fruit being enveloped in a
web, as it were, and so stifled. There are certain winds, too, that
are particularly blighting to the olive and the vine, as also to other
fruits as well: and then besides, the fruits themselves, independently
of the tree, are very much worm-eaten in some years, the apple, pear,
medlar, and pomegranate for instance. In the olive the presence of the
worm may be productive of a twofold result: if it grows beneath the
skin, it will destroy the fruit, but if it is in the stone, it will
only gnaw it away, making the fruit all the larger. The prevalence of
showers after the rising of Arcturus[3199] prevents them from breeding;
but if the rains are accompanied with wind from the south, they will
make their appearance in the ripe fruit even, which are then very apt
to fall. This happens more particularly in moist, watery localities;
and even if they do not fall, the olives that are so affected are good
for nothing. There is a kind of fly also that is very troublesome to
some fruit, acorns and figs for instance: it would appear that they
breed from the juices[3200] secreted beneath the bark, which at this
period are sweet. These trees, too, are generally in a diseased state
when this happens.
There are certain temporary and local influences which cause
instantaneous death to trees, but which cannot properly be termed
diseases; such, for example, as consumption, blast, or the noxious
effects of some winds that are peculiar to certain localities; of this
last nature are the Atabulus[3201] that prevails in Apulia, and the
Olympias[3202] of Eubœa. This wind, if it happens to blow about the
winter solstice, nips the tree with cold, and shrivels it up to such
a degree that no warmth of the sun can ever revive it. Trees that are
planted in valleys, and are situate near the banks of rivers, are
especially liable to these accidents, the vine more particularly, the
olive, and the fig. When this has been the case, it may instantly be
detected the moment the period for germination arrives, though, in the
olive, somewhat later. With all of these trees, if the leaves fall off,
it is a sign that they will recover; but if such is not the case, just
when you would suppose that they have escaped uninjured, they die.
Sometimes, however, the leaves will become green again, after being dry
and shrivelled. Other trees, again, in the northern regions, Pontus
and Phrygia, for example, suffer greatly from cold or frost, in case
they should continue for forty days after the winter solstice. In these
countries, too, as well as in other parts, if a sharp frost or copious
rains should happen to come on immediately after fructification, the
fruit is killed in a very few days even.
Injuries inflicted by the hand of man are productive also of bad
effects. Thus, for instance, pitch, oil, and grease,[3203] if applied
to trees, and young ones more particularly, are highly detrimental.
They may be killed, also, by removing a circular piece of the bark
from around them, with the exception, indeed, of the cork-tree,[3204]
which is rather benefitted than otherwise by the operation; for the
bark as it gradually thickens tends to stifle and suffocate the tree:
the andrachle,[3205] too, receives no injury from it, if care is taken
not to cut the body of the tree. In addition to this, the cherry, the
lime, and the vine shed their bark;[3206] not that portion of it,
indeed, which is essential to life, and grows next the trunk, but the
part that is thrown off, in proportion as the other grows beneath.
In some trees the bark is naturally full of fissures, the plane for
instance: in the linden it will all but grow again when removed. Hence,
in those trees the bark of which admits of cicatrization, a mixture of
clay and dung[3207] is employed by way of remedy; and sometimes with
success, in case excessive cold or heat does not immediately supervene.
In some trees, again, by the adoption of these methods death is only
retarded, the robur and the quercus,[3208] for example. The season of
the year has also its peculiar influences; thus, if the bark is removed
from the fir and the pine, while the sun is passing through Taurus
or Gemini, the period of their germination, they will instantly die,
while in winter they are able to withstand the injurious effects of it
much longer: the same is the case, too, with the holm-oak, the robur,
and the quercus. In the trees above mentioned, if it is only a narrow
circular strip of bark that is removed, no injurious effects will be
perceptible; but in the case of the weaker trees, as well as those
which grow in a thin soil, the same operation, if performed even on one
side only, will be sure to kill them. The removal of the top,[3209] in
the pitch-tree, the cedar, and the cypress is productive of a similar
result; for if it is either cut off or destroyed by fire, the tree will
not survive: the same is the case, too, if they are bitten by the teeth
of animals.
Varro[3210] informs us, too, as we have already stated,[3211] that
the olive, if only licked by a she-goat, will be barren.[3212] When
thus injured, some trees will die, while in others the fruit becomes
deteriorated, the almond,[3213] for instance, the fruit of which
changes from sweet to bitter. In other cases, again, the tree is
improved[3214] even—such, for instance, as the pear known in Chios as
the Phocian pear. We have already mentioned[3215] certain trees, also,
that are all the better for having the tops removed. Most trees perish
when the trunk is split; but we must except the vine, the apple, the
fig, and the pomegranate. Others, again, will die if only a wound is
inflicted: the fig, however, as well as all the resinous trees, is
proof against such injury. It is far from surprising that, when the
roots of a tree are cut, death should be the result; most of them
perish, however, when, not all the roots, but only the larger ones, and
those which are more essential to life, have been severed.
Trees, too, will kill one another[3216] by their shade, or the density
of their foliage, as also by the withdrawal of nourishment. Ivy,[3217]
by clinging to a tree, will strangle[3218] it. The mistletoe, too, is
far from beneficial, and the cytisus is killed by the plant to which
the Greeks have given the name of halimon.[3219] It is the nature of
some plants not to kill, but to injure, by the odour they emit, or by
the admixture of their juices; such is the influence exercised by the
radish and the laurel upon the vine.[3220] For the vine may reasonably
be looked upon as possessed of the sense of smell, and affected
by odours in a singular degree; hence, when it is near a noxious
exhalation, it will turn away and withdraw from it. It was from his
observation of this fact that Androcydes borrowed the radish[3221]
as his antidote for drunkenness, recommending it to be eaten on such
occasions. The vine, too, abhors all coleworts and garden herbs, and
the hazel[3222] as well; indeed it will become weak and ailing if they
are not removed to a distance from it. Nitre, alum, warm sea-water, and
the shells of beans[3223] and fitches act as poisons on the vine.
CHAP. 38. (25.)—PRODIGIES CONNECTED WITH TREES.
Among the maladies which affect the various trees, we may find room
for portentous prodigies also. For we find some trees that have
never had a leaf upon them; a vine and a pomegranate bearing[3224]
fruit adhering to the trunk, and not upon the shoots or branches; a
vine, too, that bore grapes but had no leaves; and olives that have
lost their leaves while the fruit remained upon the tree. There are
some marvels also connected with trees that are owing to accident;
an olive that was completely burnt, has been known to revive, and
in Bœotia, some fig-trees that had been quite eaten away by locusts
budded afresh.[3225] Trees, too, sometimes change their colour, and
turn from black to white; this, however, must not always be looked
upon as portentous, and more particularly in the case of those which
are grown from seed; the white poplar, too, often becomes black. Some
persons are of opinion also that the service-tree, if transplanted
to a warmer locality, will become barren. But it is a prodigy, no
doubt, when sweet fruits become sour, or sour fruits sweet; and when
the wild fig becomes changed into the cultivated one, or vice versâ.
It is sadly portentous,[3226] too, when the tree becomes deteriorated
by the change, the cultivated olive changing into the wild, and the
white grape or fig becoming black: such was the case, also, when upon
the arrival of Xerxes there, a plane-tree at Laodicea was transformed
into an olive. In such narratives as these, the book written in
Greek by Aristander abounds, not to enter any further on so extended
a subject; and we have in Latin the Commentaries of C. Epidius, in
which we find it stated that trees have even been known to speak. In
the territory of Cumæ, a tree, and a very ominous presage it was, sank
into the earth shortly before the civil wars of Pompeius Magnus began,
leaving only a few of the branches protruding from the ground. The
Sibylline Books were accordingly consulted, and it was found that a war
of extermination was impending, which would be attended with greater
carnage the nearer it should approach the city of Rome.
Another kind of prodigy, too, is the springing up of a tree in some
extraordinary and unusual place, the head of a statue, for instance,
or an altar, or upon another tree even.[3227] A fig-tree shot forth
from a laurel at Cyzicus, just before the siege of that city; and so in
like manner, at Tralles, a palm issued from the pedestal of the statue
of the Dictator Cæsar, at the period of his civil wars. So, too, at
Rome, in the Capitol there, in the time of the wars against Perseus,
a palm-tree grew from the head of the statue of Jupiter, a presage
of impending victory and triumphs. This palm, however, having been
destroyed by a tempest, a fig-tree sprang up in the very same place,
at the period of the lustration made by the censors M. Messala and C.
Cassius,[3228] a time at which, according to Piso, an author of high
authority, all sense of shame had been utterly banished. Above all the
prodigies, however, that have ever been heard of, we ought to place the
one that was seen in our own time, at the period of the fall of the
Emperor Nero, in the territory of Marrucinum; a plantation of olives,
belonging to Vectius Marcellus, one of the principal members of the
Equestrian order, bodily crossed the public highway, while the fields
that lay on the opposite side of the road passed over to supply the
place which had been thus vacated by the olive-yard.[3229]
CHAP. 39. (26.)—TREATMENT OF THE DISEASES OF TREES.
Having set forth the various maladies by which trees are attacked, it
seems only proper to mention the most appropriate remedies as well.
Some of these remedies may be applied to all kinds of trees in common,
while others, again, are peculiar to some only. The methods that are
common to them all, are, baring the roots, or moulding them up, thus
admitting the air or keeping it away, as the case may be; giving them
water, or depriving them of it, refreshing them with the nutritious
juices of manure, and lightening them of their burdens by pruning. The
operation, too, of bleeding,[3230] as it were, is performed upon them
by withdrawing their juices, and the bark is scraped all round[3231] to
improve them. In the vine, the stock branches are sometimes lengthened
out, and at other times repressed; the buds too are smoothed, and in
a measure polished up, in case the cold weather has made them rough
and scaly. These remedies are better suited to some kinds of trees and
less so to others: thus the cypress, for instance, has a dislike to
water, and manifests an aversion to manure, spading round it, pruning,
and, indeed, remedial operations of every kind; nay, what is more, it
is killed by irrigation, while, on the other hand, the vine and the
pomegranate receive their principal nutriment from it. In the fig,
again, the tree is nourished by watering, while the very same thing
will make the fruit pine and die: the almond, too, if the ground is
spaded about it, will lose its blossom. In the same way, too, there
must be no digging about the roots of trees when newly grafted, or
indeed until such time as they are sufficiently strong to bear. Many
trees require that all superfluous burdens should be pruned away from
them, just as we ourselves cut the nails and hair. Old trees are
often cut down to the ground, and then shoot up again from one of the
suckers; this, however, is not the case with all of them, but only
those, the nature of which, as we have already stated,[3232] will admit
of it.
CHAP. 40.—METHODS OF IRRIGATION.
Watering is good for trees during the heats of summer, but injurious in
winter; the effects of it are of a varied nature in autumn, and depend
upon the peculiar nature of the soil. Thus, in Spain for instance, the
vintager gathers the grapes while the ground beneath is under water; on
the other hand, in most parts of the world, it is absolutely necessary
to carry off the autumn rains by draining. It is about the rising of
the Dog-star that irrigation is so particularly beneficial; but even
then it ought not to be in excess, as the roots are apt to become
inebriated, and to receive injury therefrom. Care should be taken,
too, to proportion it to the age of the tree, young trees being not
so thirsty as older ones; those too which require the most water, are
the ones that have been the most used to it. On the other hand, plants
which grow in a dry soil, require no more moisture than is absolutely
necessary to their existence.
CHAP. 41.—REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH IRRIGATION.
In the Fabian district, which belongs to the territory of Sulmo[3233]
in Italy, where they are in the habit, also, of irrigating the fields,
the natural harshness of the wines makes it necessary to water the
vineyards; it is a very singular thing, too, that the water there
kills all the weeds, while at the same time it nourishes the corn,
thus acting in place of the weeding-hook. In the same district, too,
at the winter solstice, and more particularly when the snow is on the
ground or frosts prevail, they irrigate the land, a process which they
call “warming” the soil. This peculiarity, however, exists in the
water of one river[3234] only, the cold of which in summer is almost
insupportable.
CHAP. 42. (27.)—INCISIONS MADE IN TREES.
The proper remedies for charcoal-blight and mildew[3235] will be
pointed out in the succeeding Book.[3236] In the meantime, however,
we may here observe that among the remedies may be placed that by
scarification.[3237] When the bark becomes meagre and impoverished by
disease, it is apt to shrink, and so compress the vital parts of the
tree to an excessive degree: upon which, by means of a sharp pruning
knife held with both hands, incisions are made perpendicularly down
the tree, and a sort of looseness, as it were, imparted to the skin.
It is a proof that the method has been adopted with success, when the
fissures so made remain open and become filled with wood of the trunk
growing between the lips.
CHAP. 43.—OTHER REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF TREES.
The medical treatment of trees in a great degree resembles that of man,
seeing that in certain cases the bones of them both are perforated
even.[3238] The bitter almond will become sweet, if, after spading
round the trunk and cleaning it, the lowermost part of it is pierced
all round, so that the humours may have a passage for escape and ensure
being removed. In the elm, too, the superfluous juices are drawn off,
by piercing the tree above ground to the pith when it is old, or when
it is found to suffer from an excess of nutriment. So, too, when
the bark of the fig is turgid and swollen, the confined juices are
discharged by means of light incisions made in a slanting direction;
by the adoption of which method the fruit is prevented from falling
off. When fruit-trees bud but bear no fruit, a fissure is made in the
root, and a stone inserted; the result of which is, that they become
productive.[3239] The same is done also with the almond, a wedge of
robur being employed for the purpose. For the pear and the service tree
a wedge of torch-wood is used, and then covered over with ashes and
earth. It is even found of use, too, to make circular incisions around
the roots of the vine and fig, when the vegetation is too luxuriant,
and then to throw ashes over the roots. A late crop of figs is ensured,
if the first fruit is taken off when green and little larger than a
bean; for it is immediately succeeded by fresh, which ripens at a
later period than usual. If the tops of each branch are removed from
the fig, just as it is beginning to put forth leaves, its strength and
productiveness are greatly increased. As to caprification, the effect
of that is to ripen the fruit.
CHAP. 44.—CAPRIFICATION, AND PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE FIG.
It is beyond all doubt that in caprification the green fruit gives
birth to a kind of gnat;[3240] for when they have taken flight, there
are no seeds to be found within the fruit: from this it would appear
that the seeds have been transformed into these gnats. Indeed, these
insects are so eager to take their flight, that they mostly leave
behind them either a leg or a part of a wing on their departure. There
is another species of gnat,[3241] too, that grows in the fig, which
in its indolence and malignity strongly resembles the drone of the
bee-hive, and shows itself a deadly enemy to the one that is of real
utility; it is called centrina, and in killing the others it meets its
own death.
Moths, too, attack the seeds of the fig: the best plan of getting rid
of them, is to bury a slip of mastich,[3242] turned upside down, in the
same trench. The fig, too, is rendered extremely productive[3243] by
soaking red earth in amurca, and laying it, with some manure, upon the
roots of the tree, just as it is beginning to throw out leaves. Among
the wild figs, the black ones, and those which grow in rocky places,
are the most esteemed, from the fact of the fruit containing the most
seed. Caprification takes place most advantageously just after rain.
CHAP. 45.—ERRORS THAT MAY BE COMMITTED IN PRUNING.
But, before everything, especial care should be taken that intended
remedies are not productive of ill results; as these may arise from
either remedial measures being applied in excess or at unseasonable
times. Clearing away the branches is of the greatest benefit to trees,
but to slaughter[3244] them this way every year, is productive of the
very worst results. The vine is the only tree that requires lopping
every year, the myrtle, the pomegranate, and olive every other; the
reason being that these trees shoot with great rapidity. The other
trees are lopped less frequently, and none of them in autumn; the trunk
even is never scraped,[3245] except in spring. In pruning a tree,
all that is removed beyond what is absolutely necessary, is so much
withdrawn from its vitality.
CHAP. 46.—THE PROPER MODE OF MANURING TREES.
The same precautions, too, are to be regarded in manuring. Though
manure is grateful to the tree, still it is necessary to be careful
not to apply it while the sun is hot, or while it is too new, or more
stimulating than is absolutely necessary. The dung of swine will
burn[3246] up the vine, if used at shorter intervals than those of
five years; unless, indeed, it is mixed with water. The same is the
case, too, with the refuse of the currier’s workshop, unless it is
well diluted with water: manure will scorch also, if laid on land too
plentifully. It is generally considered the proper proportion, to use
three modii to every ten feet square; this, however, the nature of the
soil must decide.
CHAP. 47.—MEDICAMENTS FOR TREES.
Wounds and incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon dung and
swine manure. If pomegranates are acid, the roots of the tree are
cleared, and swine’s dung is applied to them: the result is, that
in the first year the fruit will have a vinous flavour, but in the
succeeding one it will be sweet. Some persons are of opinion that the
pomegranate should be watered four times a year with a mixture of human
urine and water, at the rate of an amphora to each tree; or else that
the extremities of the branches should be sprinkled with silphium[3247]
steeped in wine. The stalk of the pomegranate should be twisted, if it
is found to split while on the tree. The fig, too, should be drenched
with the amurca of olives, and other trees when they are ailing,
with lees of wine; or else lupines may be sown about the roots. The
water, too, of a decoction of lupines is beneficial to the fruit, if
poured upon the roots of the tree. When it thunders at the time of the
Vulcanalia,[3248] the figs fall off; the only remedy for which is to
have the area beneath ready covered with barley-straw. Lime applied to
the roots of the tree makes cherries come sooner to maturity, and ripen
more rapidly. The best plan, too, with the cherry, as with all other
kinds, is to thin the fruit, so that that which is left behind may grow
all the larger.
(28.) There are some trees, again, which thrive all the better for
being maltreated,[3249] or else are stimulated by pungent substances;
the palm and the mastich for instance, which derive nutriment from
salt water.[3250] Ashes have the same virtues as salt, only in a more
modified degree; for which reason it is, that fig-trees are sprinkled
with them; as also with rue,[3251] to keep away worms, and to prevent
the roots from rotting. What is still more even, it is recommended to
throw salt[3252] water on the roots of vines, if they are too full of
humours; and if the fruit falls off, to sprinkle them with ashes and
vinegar, or with sandarach if the grapes are rotting.[3253] If, again,
a vine is not productive, it should be sprinkled and rubbed with strong
vinegar and ashes; and if the grapes, instead of ripening, dry and
shrivel up, the vine should be lopped near the roots,[3254] and the
wound and fibres drenched with strong vinegar and stale urine; after
which, the roots should be covered up with mud annealed with these
liquids, and the ground spaded repeatedly.
As to the olive, if it gives promise of but little fruit, the roots
should be bared, and left exposed to the winter cold,[3255] a mode of
treatment for which it is all the better.
All these operations depend each year upon the state of the weather,
and require to be sometimes retarded, and at other times precipitated.
The very element of fire even has its own utility, in the case of the
reed for instance; which, after the reed-bed has been burnt, will
spring up all the thicker and more pliable.[3256]
Cato,[3257] too, gives receipts for certain medicaments, specifying the
proportions as well; for the roots of the large trees he prescribes
an amphora, and for those of the smaller ones, an urna, of amurca of
olives, mixed with water in equal proportions, recommending the roots
to be cleared, and the mixture to be gradually poured upon them. In
addition to this, in the case of the olive and the fig, he recommends
that a layer of straw should be first placed around them. In the
fig, too, more particularly, he says that in spring the roots should
be well moulded up; the result of which is, that the fruit will not
fall off while green, and the tree will be all the more productive,
and not affected with roughness of the bark. In the same way,
too,[3258] to prevent the vine-fretter[3259] from attacking the tree,
he recommends that two congii of amurca of olives should be boiled
down to the consistency of honey, after which it must be boiled again
with one-third part of bitumen, and one-fourth of sulphur; and this
should be done, he says, in the open air, for fear of its igniting if
prepared in-doors; with this mixture, the vine is to be anointed at the
ends of the branches and at the axils; after which, no more fretters
will be seen. Some persons are content to make a fumigation with this
mixture while the wind is blowing towards the vine, for three days in
succession.
Many persons, again, attribute no less utility and nutritious virtue to
urine than Cato does to amurca; only they add to it an equal proportion
of water, it being injurious if employed by itself. Some give the name
of “volucre”[3260] to an insect which eats away the young grapes: to
prevent this, they rub the pruning-knife, every time it is sharpened,
upon a beaver-skin, and then prune the tree with it: it is recommended
also, that after the pruning, the knife should be well rubbed with the
blood of a bear.[3261] Ants, too, are a great pest to trees; they are
kept away, however, by smearing the trunk with red earth and tar: if a
fish, too, is hung up in the vicinity of the tree, these insects will
collect in that one spot. Another method, again, is to pound lupines
in oil,[3262] and anoint the roots with the mixture. Many people kill
both ants as well as moles[3263] with amurca, and preserve apples from
caterpillars as well as from rotting, by touching the top of the tree
with the gall of a green lizard.
Another method, too, of preventing caterpillars, is to make a
woman,[3264] with her monthly courses on her, go round each tree,
barefooted and ungirt. Again, for the purpose of preventing animals
from doing mischief by browsing upon the leaves, they should be
sprinkled with cow-dung each time after rain, the showers having the
effect of washing away the virtues of this application.
The industry of man has really made some very wonderful discoveries,
and, indeed, has gone so far as to lead many persons to believe, that
hail-storms may be averted by means of a certain charm, the words of
which I really could not venture seriously to transcribe; although we
find that Cato[3265] has given those which are employed as a charm for
sprained limbs, employing splints of reed in conjunction with it. The
same author,[3266] too, has allowed of consecrated trees and groves
being cut down, after a sacrifice has first been offered: the form of
prayer, and the rest of the proceedings, will be found fully set forth
in the same work of his.
SUMMARY.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, eight
hundred and eighty.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Cornelius Nepos,[3267] Cato[3268] the
Censor, M. Varro,[3269] Celsus,[3270] Virgil,[3271] Hyginus,[3272]
Saserna[3273] father and son, Scrofa,[3274] Calpurnius Bassus,[3275]
Trogus,[3276] Æmilius Macer,[3277] Græcinus,[3278] Columella,[3279]
Atticus Julius,[3280] Fabianus,[3281] Mamilius Sura,[3282] Dossenus
Mundus,[3283] C. Epidius,[3284] L. Piso.[3285]
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Hesiod,[3286] Theophrastus,[3287]
Aristotle,[3288] Democritus,[3289] Theopompus,[3290] King Hiero,[3291]
King Attalus[3292] Philometor, King Archelaus,[3293] Archytas,[3294]
Xenophon,[3295] Amphilochus[3296] of Athens, Anaxipolis[3297] of
Thasos, Apollodorus[3298] of Lemnos, Aristophanes[3299] of Miletus,
Antigonus[3300] of Cymæ, Agathocles[3301] of Chios, Apollonius[3302] of
Pergamus, Bacchius[3303] of Miletus, Bion[3304] of Soli, Chæreas[3305]
of Athens, Chæristus[3306] of Athens, Diodorus[3307] of Priene,
Dion[3308] of Colophon, Epigenes[3309] of Rhodes, Euagon[3310] of
Thasos, Euphronius[3311] of Athens, Androtion[3312] who wrote on
Agriculture, Æschrion[3313] who wrote on Agriculture, Lysimachus[3314]
who wrote on Agriculture, Dionysius[3315] who translated Mago,
Diophanes[3316] who made an Epitome of Dionysius, Aristander[3317] who
wrote on Portents.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In B. xii. c. 32—it is supposed by some that it is the Roman Libra
that is meant, under the name of “Mina,” as containing eighty-four
Denarii. If so, it must be the old Roman Libra, as it is more generally
thought that the Libra of Pliny’s time contained ninety-six Denarii, of
sixty grains, within a fraction.
[2] One thousand Paces made a Roman “Mille Passuum,” or Mile, 1618
yards English.
[3] “Immensæ subtilitatis.” As Cuvier remarks, the ancients have
committed more errors in reference to the insects, than to any other
portion of the animal world. The discovery of the microscope has served
more than anything to correct these erroneous notions.
[4] “Insecta,” “articulated.”
[5] The trunk of the gnat, Cuvier says, contains five silken and
pointed threads, which together have the effect of a sting.
[6] The Teredo navalis of Linnæus, not an insect, but one of the
mollusks. This is the same creature that is mentioned in B. xvi. c. 80;
but that spoken of in B. viii. c. 74, must have been a land insect.
[7] They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to
naturalists as _stigmata_. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms, in a
measure, a system of lungs.
[8] Cuvier remarks that the various noises made by insects are in
reality not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through
a larynx.
[9] B. ix. c. 6.
[10] Cuvier remarks, that they have a nourishing fluid, which is of a
white colour, and acts in place of blood.
[11] The dye of sæpia, Cuvier remarks, is not blood, nor does it act
as such, being an excrementitious liquid. It has in addition a bluish,
transparent, blood. The same also with the juices of the purple.
[12] “Nervos.” Cuvier says that all insects have a brain, a sort of
spinal marrow, and nerves.
[13] “Tutius.”
[14] Insects have no fat, Cuvier says, except when in the chrysalis
state; but they have a fibrous flesh of a whitish colour. They have
also viscera, trachea, nerves, and a most complicated organization.
[15] “Melligo.” For further information on this subject consult Bevan
on the Honey Bee.
[16] Or “conusis,” “gummy matter.”
[17] Pitch-wax.
[18] A kind of bee-glue; the origin of the name does not seem to be
known. Reaumur says that they are all different varieties of bee-glue.
[19] See B. xxii. c. 50.
[20] Different combinations of the pollen of flowers, on which bees
feed.
[21] It is formed from the honey that the bee has digested.
[22] Sorrel, or monk’s rhubarb.
[23] A kind of broom.
[24] Spanish broom, the Stipa tenacissima of Linnæus. Ropes were made
of it. See B. xix. c. 7.
[25] Or, the “wild man.”
[26] Huber has discovered that there are two kinds of bees of neutral
sex, or, as he calls them, unprolific females, the workers, which go
out, and the nurses, which are smaller, and stay in the hive to tend
the larvæ.
[27] From the honey found in the corollæ of flowers. This, after being
prepared in the first stomach of the bee, is deposited in the cell
which is formed for its reception.
[28] Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely
necessary, and that they do not depend on the greater or less
abundance. The _king_ of the ancients is what we know as the _queen_
bee, which is impregnated by the drones or males.
[29] This is the fact, but not so their _imperfect_ state.
[30] They do not work, but merely impregnate the queen; after which
they are driven from the hive, and perish of cold and starvation.
[31] It appears, as Cuvier says, that the ancients had _some_ notion
that the swarm was multiplied by the aid of the drones.
[32] Cuvier says that the cell for the future queen is different from
the others, and much larger. The bees also supply the queen larva much
more abundantly with food, and of more delicate quality.
[33] Cuvier says that this coincidence with the number of the legs is
quite accidental, as it is with the mouth that the animal constructs
the cell.
[34] The basis of it is really derived from the calix or corolla of
flowers.
[35] See B. iv. c. 24.
[36] In the last Chapter.
[37] Or “Flower-honey.”
[38] Season-honey.
[39] “Vinegar” is the ordinary meaning.
[40] Sillig remarks that the whole of this passage is corrupt.
[41] Hence, perhaps, its name of “acetum.”
[42] The people of Italy.
[43] The 10th of the calends of September, or 23rd August.
[44] Or “heath-honey.” In the north of England the hives are purposely
taken to the moors.
[45] “Erice,” “heather,” seems to be a preferable reading to “myrice,”
“tamarisk,” which is adopted by Sillig.
[46] 12th September.
[47] “Tetralicem” seems preferable to “tamaricem.”
[48] 13th November.
[49] “Unsmoked” honey.
[50] It takes place while they are on the wing.
[51] The only prolific _female_, in reality.
[52] Some unprolific females and some males, in reality.
[53] Cuvier thinks that either hornets, or else the drones, must be
alluded to. Virgil, Georg. B. iv. l. 197, _et seq._, is one of those
who think that bees are produced from flowers.
[54] _I. e._ from flowers.
[55] They arrange the eggs in the cells, but they cannot be said to
_sit_.
[56] This is not the fact. The queen bee commences as a larva, and that
the larva of a working bee, Cuvier says, which, placed in a larger
cell, and nurtured in a different manner, developes its sex and becomes
the queen of the new swarm.
[57] They are then in the chrysalis state.
[58] “Clavus.”
[59] It is the first hatched _queen_ that puts the others to death.
[60] In consequence, really, of their pregnancy.
[61] The greater size of the abdomen makes the wings _look_ shorter.
[62] The queen has a sting, like the working bees, but uses it less
frequently.
[63] A place in Germany, where Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, gained
a victory over the Germans: the locality is unknown.
[64] “Fur.” A variety, probably, of the drone.
[65] So Virgil says—
——“Hæc certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa
quiescent.”—_Georg._ iv. 87.
[66] If it is left in the wound, the insect dies, being torn asunder.
[67] Of course this is fabulous, as the drones are males.
[68] Though belonging to the same class, they are not of degenerate
kinds.
[69] The “mule-gnat.”
[70] See Virgil, Georg. B. iv. l. 27.
[71] The reading seems doubtful, and the meaning is probably unknown.
[72] “Injury of the young.”
[73] There are two kinds of hive-moth—the Phalæna tinea mellanella of
Linnæus, and the Phalæna tortrix cereana. It deposits its larva in
holes which it makes in the wax.
[74] In consequence of closing the stigmata, and so impeding their
respiration. The same result, no doubt, is produced by the honey when
smeared over their bodies.
[75] B. xxi. c. 42.
[76] Cuvier says that a hive has been known to last more than thirty
years: but it is doubtful if bees ever live so long as ten, or, except
the queen, little more than one.
[77] Though Virgil tells the same story, in B. iv. of the Georgics, in
relation to the shepherd Aristæus, all this is entirely fabulous.
[78] Georg. B. iv. l. 284, _et seq._
[79] Under roofs, and sometimes in the ground: hornets build in the
hollows of trees.
[80] Called “Sphæx” by Linnæus.
[81] The true version is, that after killing the insect they bury it
with their eggs as food for their future young.
[82] Cuvier says that it is the males, and not the females, that have
no sting.
[83] What modern naturalists call the “Hymenoptera.”
[84] Some kind of wasp, or, as Cuvier says, probably the mason bee.
[85] Called “bombyx” also; though, as Cuvier remarks, of a kind
altogether different from the preceding one.
[86] The first kinds of silk dresses worn by the Roman ladies were
from this island, and, as Pliny says, were known by the name of _Coæ
vestes_. These dresses were so fine as to be transparent, and were
sometimes dyed purple, and enriched with stripes of gold. They probably
had their name from the early reputation which Cos acquired by its
manufactures of silk.
[87] This account is derived from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 19.
[88] “Lanificia.”
[89] Early in the reign of Tiberius, as we learn from Tacitus, the
senate enacted “ne vestis Serica viros fædaret”—“That men should not
defile themselves by wearing garments of silk,” Ann. B. ii. c. 33.
[90] The Aranea lupus of Linnæus.
[91] As Cuvier observes, he has here guessed at the truth.
[92] They copulate in a manner dissimilar to that of any other
insects—the male fecundates the female by the aid of feelers, which he
introduces into the vulva of the female situate beneath the anterior
part of the abdomen.
[93] Cuvier remarks, that the scorpion is viviparous; but the young are
white when born, and wrapped up in an oval mass, for which reason they
may easily be taken for maggots or grubs.
[94] This must be understood of the scorpion of Egypt, Libya, and
Syria. The sting of that of the south of Europe is not generally
dangerous.
[95] Cuvier seems to regard this as fanciful: he says that the
instances of _seven_ joints are but rarely to be met with.
[96] There are no winged scorpions. Cuvier thinks that he may possibly
allude to the panorpis, or scorpion-fly, the abdomen of which
terminates in a forceps, which resembles the tail of the scorpion.
[97] Probably the panorpis.
[98] See B. xxix. c. 29.
[99] The starred or spotted lizard.
[100] The stellio of the Romans is the “ascalabos” or “ascalabotes” of
the Greeks, the lizard into which Ascalabus was changed by Ceres: see
Ovid, Met. B. v. l. 450, _et seq._ Pliny also mentions this in B. xxix.
c. 4, though he speaks of some difference in their appearance. It is
a species of gecko, the tarentola of Italy, the tarente of Provence,
and the geckotta, probably, of Lacepède. The gecko, Cuvier says, is
not venomous; but it causes small blisters to rise on the skin when it
walks over it, the result, probably, of the extreme sharpness of its
nails.
[101] See c. 28 of this Book, and B. viii. c. 95; B. xxx. c. 27.
[102] A general name for the grasshopper. Cuvier remarks, that Pliny is
less clear on this subject than Aristotle, the author from whom he has
borrowed.
[103] “Correptis” seems a preferable reading to “conrupti,” that
adopted by Sillig.
[104] The female has this, and employs it for piercing dead branches in
which to deposit its eggs.
[105] The “mother of the grasshopper.”
[106] The trunk of the grasshopper, Cuvier says, is situate so low
down, that it seems to be attached to the breast. With it the insect
extracts the juices of leaves and stalks.
[107] Or “twig-grasshopper.”
[108] Or “corn-grasshopper.”
[109] Or “oat-grasshopper.”
[110] The river Cæcina. See B. iii. c. 15. This river is by Strabo,
B. vi. c. 260, called the Alex. Ælian has the story that the Locrian
grasshoppers become silent in the territory of Rhegium, and those of
Rhegium in the territory of Locri, thereby implying that they each have
a note in its own respective country.
[111] Cuvier says that the observations in this Chapter, derived from
Aristotle, are remarkable for their exactness, and show that that
philosopher had studied insects with the greatest attention.
[112] Or sheath; the Coleoptera of the naturalists.
[113] The flying stag-beetle, the Lucanus cervus of Linnæus.
[114] The dung-beetle, the Scarabæus pilularius of Linnæus.
[115] Various kinds of crickets.
[116] Cuvier says that it is on the two sides of the abdomen that the
male carries its light, while the whole posterior part of the female is
shining.
[117] In the glow-worm of France, the Lampyris noctiluca of Linnæus,
the female is without wings, while the male gives but little light. In
that of Italy, the Lampyris Italica, both sexes are winged.
[118] “Blattæ.” See B. xxix. c. 39, where three kinds are specified.
[119] This beetle appears to be unknown. Cuvier suggests that the
Scarabæus nasicornis of Linnæus, which haunts dead bark, or the
Scarabæus auratus may be the insect referred to.
[120] “Fatal to the beetle.”
[121] Cuvier remarks that this assertion, borrowed from Aristotle, is
incorrect. The wings of many of the Coleoptera are articulated in the
middle, and so double, one part on the other, to enter the sheath.
[122] Cuvier remarks, that the panorpis has a tail very like that of
the scorpion; and that the ephemera, the ichneumons and others, have
tails also. Aristotle, in the corresponding place, only says that the
insects do not use the tail to direct their flight.
[123] These are merely the feelers of the jaws.
[124] Not instead of, but in addition to, the tongue, by the aid of
which they suck.
[125] Evidently meaning the trunk.
[126] See B. xxix. c. 39.
[127] It is not true that the young locusts are destitute of feet.
[128] 7th May.
[129] 18th July.
[130] 11th May.
[131] Cuvier treats this story as purely imaginary.
[132] Cuvier says that some have been known nearly a foot long, but not
more.
[133] He alludes to the ravages committed by the swarms of the
migratory locust, Grillus migratorius of Linnæus.
[134] Julius Obsequens speaks of a pestilence there, created by the
dead bodies of the locusts, which caused the death of 8000 persons.
[135] See also B. vi. c. 35.
[136] What are commonly called ants’ eggs, are in reality their larvæ
and nymphæ. Enveloped in a sort of tunic, these last, Cuvier says,
are like grains of corn, and from this probably has arisen the story
that they lay up grains against the winter, a period through which in
reality they do not eat.
[137] They stow away bits of meat and detached portions of fruit, to
nourish their larvæ with their juices.
[138] It is in reality their larvæ that they thus bring out to dry. The
working ants, or neutrals, are the ones on which these labours devolve:
the males and females are winged, the working ants are without wings.
[139] “Ad recognitionem mutuam.”
[140] Some modern writers express an opinion that when they meet, they
converse and encourage one another by the medium of touch and smell.
[141] See B. v. c. 31.
[142] M. de Veltheim thinks that by this is really meant the Canis
corsac, the small fox of India, but that by some mistake it was
represented by travellers as an ant. It is not improbable, Cuvier
says, that some quadruped, in making holes in the ground, may have
occasionally thrown up some grains of the precious metal. The story
is derived from the narratives of Clearchus and Megasthenes. Another
interpretation of this story has also been suggested. We find from
some remarks of Mr. Wilson, in the _Transactions of the Asiatic
Society_, on the Mahabharata, a Sanscrit poem, that various tribes on
the mountains Meru and Mandara (supposed to lie between Hindostan and
Tibet) used to sell grains of gold, which they called _paippilaka_, or
“ant-gold,” which, they said, was thrown up by ants, in Sanscrit called
_pippilaka_. In travelling westward, this story, in itself, no doubt,
untrue, may very probably have been magnified to its present dimensions.
[143] Cuvier observes, that this is a very correct account of the
cabbage or radish butterfly, the Papilio brassicæ or Papilio raphani of
Linnæus.
[144] Cossi. See B. xvii. c. 37.
[145] Tæniæ.
[146] He alludes to the Morbus pediculosus.
[147] Aristotle says, in the corresponding passage, Hist. Anim. B.
v. c. 26, that the animals which are affected by lice, are more
particularly exposed to them when they change the water in which they
wash.
[148] Or “leapers.”
[149] He alludes to dog-ticks and ox-ticks, the Acarus ricinus of
Linnæus, and the Acarus reduvius of Schrank.
[150] In c. 32 he has said the same of the grasshopper; in relation to
its drink.
[151] A variety of the Cynips of Linnæus, which in vast numbers will
sometimes adhere to the ears of dogs.
[152] These are really the larvæ of night-moths. His account here is
purely imaginary.
[153] He speaks of the Cynips psenes of Linnæus, which breeds on the
blossom of the fig-tree, and aids in its fecundation. See B. xv. c. 21.
[154] He alludes to various coleopterous insects, which are not
included among the Cantharides of the modern naturalists. They are
first an egg, then a larva, then a nympha, and then the insect fully
developed.
[155] See B. xxix. c. 30.
[156] The redness sometimes observed on the snow of the Alps and the
Pyrenees, is supposed by De Lamarck to be produced by animalculæ: other
naturalists, however, suppose it to arise from vegetable or mineral
causes.
[157] Cuvier thinks that he alludes to a variety of the ephemera or
the phryganea of Linnæus, the case-wing flies, many of which are
particularly short-lived. These are by no means peculiar to the river
Bog or Hypanis.
[158] “Living for a day.”
[159] They only _appear_ to be so, from the peculiar streaks on the
eyes. Linnæus has hence called one variety, the Tabanus cæcutiens.
[160] Or with pounded chalk or whitening. Ælian adds, “if they are
placed in the sun,” which appears necessary for the full success of the
experiment. Life appears to be suspended in such cases for a period of
surprising length.
[161] Probably the golden pheasant, as already mentioned.
[162] Some kind of heron or crane, Cuvier thinks.
[163] The Alauda cristata of Linnæus, so called from “galera,” a
pointed cap like a helmet.
[164] The fifth legion.
[165] The hoopoe, B. x. c. 44.
[166] Savigny and Cuvier take this to be the Ardea virgo of Linnæus, a
native of Numidia.
[167] The suddenness of their appearance, no doubt, was fabulous; but
we have well-authenticated cases in recent times of substances growing
on the human head, to all appearance resembling horns, and arising from
a disordered secretion of the hair. Witness the case of Mary Davies,
a so-called horn from whose head is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum
at Oxford. The story of Genucius Cippus, the Roman prætor, is told by
Ovid, Met. B. xv. l. 565, _et seq._
[168] A spitter, or second year stag, according to Cuvier.
[169] “Broad-horned.” The Cervus dama of Linnæus.
[170] “Dama.” The Antelope redunca of Linnæus, Cuvier thinks.
[171] No doubt a kind of antelope.
[172] “Lyras” seems preferable to “liras.”
[173] There are several varieties of oxen, in which the horns adhere to
the skin, and not to the cranium.
[174] B. viii. cc. 29-31.
[175] The Coluber cerastes of Linnæus. See B. viii. c. 35.
[176] The drinking-horns of our Saxon ancestors are well known to the
antiquarian.
[177] The “urna” was half an “amphora,” or nearly three gallons.
[178] See B. xxxv. c. 41.
[179] The rhinoceros. See B. viii. c. 39.
[180] He surely must except the Phrygian oxen with the moveable horns,
which he has previously mentioned.
[181] Or “long-haired.” See B. iii. c. 7.
[182] See B. iv. c. 31.
[183] See B. iv. c. 22.
[184] See B. v. c. 29.
[185] Φαλακροκόραξ. See B. x. c. 68.
[186] He borrows this from Aristotle.
[187] B. viii. c. 54, and B. x. c. 58. The skull of the bear is not
thinner or weaker than that of other animals of its own size; but
the skull of the parrot, in proportion to those of other birds, is
remarkably hard.
[188] See B. vii. c. 1.
[189] Cuvier says that these are the larvæ of the œstrus, which are
deposited on the lips of quadrupeds, and so make their way to various
cavities.
[190] B. ix. c. 40.
[191] Or razor-sheath. See B. x. c. 88.
[192] Aristotle was of this opinion, but Galen maintained that the mole
_can_ see. Its eye is extremely small, and hard on the surface.
[193] Or “white” heron. As Cuvier remarks, this is probably a mere
augur’s fable.
[194] It is almost needless to remark, that both snails, as well as
locusts and grasshoppers, _have_ eyes.
[195] Lumbricus.
[196] B. vii. c. 2.
[197] “Cæsii.”
[198] The same has been said also of Cardan, the elder Scaliger,
Theodore Beza, the French physician Mairan, and the republican Camille
Desmoulins.
[199] Caligula.
[200] Hardouin with justice doubts the soundness of this alleged reason.
[201] He alludes, probably, to some method of curing cataract; perhaps
somewhat similar to that mentioned by him in B. xx. c. 20.
[202] This was done by the nearest relatives. This usage still prevails
in this country, the eyelids being pressed down with pieces of gold or
silver.
[203] Or “squint-eyed.”
[204] Or “cock-eyed.”
[205] B. viii. c. 45.
[206] B. viii, c. 51.
[207] See B. xxv. c. 50.
[208] Or crustaceous covering.
[209] Kohl is still used in the east for the same purpose.
[210] Aristotle says so, Hist. Anim. B. iii. c. 10.
[211] “The eyebrows.”
[212] This is not the fact.
[213] With their nails when mourning for the dead.
[214] Hence the word “nasutus,” a sneering, captious, or sarcastic man.
[215] “Flat-nosed,” and “snub-nosed.”
[216] A Roman family—the reading of this word seems doubtful.
[217] In reality, the under one only.
[218] He is incorrect in speaking of dogs as having serrated teeth.
[219] In the dugong also, babiroussa, muntjac, and others.
[220] The morse and the dugong are instances to the contrary.
[221] The females of the elephant, morse, dugong, chevrotin, and
muntjac have them, and they are equally as useful as with the male,
only, perhaps, not so strong.
[222] This is incorrect, unless he merely means ranged in one
continuous line; and even then he is in error.
[223] See B. ix. c. 29. This is called the parrot-fish, from the
resemblance of its upper and lower jaws to the beak of a parrot.
[224] They present this appearance from being worn away at the surface.
[225] Rondelet would read “gula,” the throat. This, though repudiated
by Hardouin, is approved of by Cuvier, who justly looks upon the
ordinary reading as an absurdity. Many fish, he says, and more
especially the osseous ones, have teeth in the pharynx.
[226] There is always one fang, at least, ready to supply the place of
the one in front, if lost by any accident.
[227] Like the jugglers of the East at the present day. But it is very
doubtful whether the poison fang is in _all_ instances previously
extracted from the serpents which they handle.
[228] But the camel, as well as the lama, has an incisive bone,
provided with an incisive tooth on each side, and has canine and molar
teeth as well.
[229] If by this term he means teeth separated from each other,
the assertion is incorrect, as in these animals we find the molars
separated from the lower incisives by a very considerable space.
[230] Cuvier says, as far as the sea-urchin is concerned, very simply,
and merely by looking at it, as its five teeth are very apparent.
[231] The incisors are in number, and very nearly in appearance, like
those of man. The canines are different in shape, though similar in
number. What he says about the elephant, is peculiar to that of India.
[232] See B. ix. c. 88.
[233] Very few other animals are born with teeth, in their natural
state. Apes, dogs, and cats are not born with teeth.
[234] From the fourth to the eighth month in reality, during which the
four central incisors appear.
[235] The only ones that do not change are those which have three
molars on each side of the jaw.
[236] This is erroneous: they change the incisors and molars as well.
[237] See B. xxviii. c. 78.
[238] By us known as the “wisdom” teeth.
[239] This is not the fact: they have usually the same number, but
there are exceptions on both sides. The same is also the case with
sheep, goats, and swine.
[240] This is not very uncommon.
[241] Not at all an uncommon occurrence.
[242] Of the second set.
[243] It is only in the horse and the ass that these indications can be
relied upon.
[244] Columellares.
[245] This has no such effect.
[246] The contrary is the case: it will be more prolific.
[247] Swine change them just the same as other animals.
[248] By certain appearances in the incisors, the age of a horse up to
its twenty-fourth year, or even beyond, may be judged of: the other
signs cannot be so positively relied upon.
[249] B. viii. c. 15.
[250] “Sævissima dentibus,” seems to be a preferable reading to
“sævissime dentiunt.”
[251] Only two-forked in reality.
[252] It is _not_ covered with hair.
[253] It is _not_ bifurcate.
[254] These are horny, conical papillæ, the summits of which point
backwards.
[255] See B. ix. c. 60.
[256] “Criers.”
[257] One of the titles of the goddess Fortuna.
[258] “Uva,” or “grape.”
[259] More generally “epiglottis.” It is found in some few reptiles.
This passage is omitted by Sillig.
[260] Gullet, or pharynx.
[261] Stomachum.
[262] All these animals, on the contrary, have seven vertebræ.
[263] This is not the fact. The spinal marrow, even, may be wounded,
without death being the immediate result.
[264] Snow-water, we know, is apt to produce goitre.
[265] “Stomachus.” More properly, the œsophagus, or ventricle.
[266] Lacunæ modo.
[267] Or turtle. It has a tongue, and though it has no teeth, the jaws
are edged with a horny substance like the bills of birds.
[268] “Crenis” is read for “renis:” otherwise the passage is
unintelligible: it is still most probably in a corrupt state.
[269] Among all the mammiferæ and the birds, the heart has four
cavities, two on each side.
[270] Mens.
[271] This is a mistake. The heart is subject to disease, equally with
other parts of the body.
[272] In spite of what Schenkius says in confirmation of Pliny, this
is very doubtful. Of course it must increase from childhood, but the
increase surely does not continue till the fiftieth year.
[273] See an account of him in the Messeniaca of Pausanias.
[274] In this part of the story may have originated that of the escape
of Sindbad the Sailor, when buried in the vault with the body of his
wife.—See the “Arabian Nights.”
[275] “Rex Sacrorum.” This was a priest elected from the patricians, on
whom the priestly duties devolved, which had been originally performed
by the kings of Rome. He ranked above the Pontifex Maximus, but was
possessed of little or no political influence.
[276] No doubt there was trickery in this.
[277] By supernatural agency.
[278] This was P. Vitellius, who served under Germanicus in Germany.
He was one of the accusers of Cn. Piso, who was charged with having
poisoned Germanicus.
[279] The cardiac disease, as alleged.
[280] B. ix. c. 6.
[281] But see B. viii. c. 51, and B. xxviii. c. 29.
[282] Plutarch says that it was the “caput,” or “head” of the liver
that was wanting. M. Marcellus was slain while reconnoitring the
Carthaginian camp by night.
[283] Caligula.
[284] 1st of January.
[285] By his niece and wife, Agrippina, the mother of Nero.
[286] See B. iv. c. 11. Tharne does not seem to be known. Of course,
this story about the hares is fabulous.
[287] There must be some corrupt reading here; for, as Sillig remarks,
who ever heard of a siege which lasted a hundred years?
[288] Or diaphragm; from “præ,” “before,” and “cor,” the “heart.”
[289] With Sardonic laughter, as Hardouin remarks.
[290] Or small guts.
[291] Or front intestines.
[292] The coot, probably.
[293] He alludes to the papillæ of the mucous gland.
[294] The colic.
[295] “Lupus cervarius.” Probably the lynx.
[296] The belly of the elephant presents five transversal folds.
[297] See B. xxviii. c. 77. This substance, known by the name of
egagropile, consists of the hair which the animal has swallowed when
licking itself. It assumes a round form, in consequence of the action
of the intestines.
[298] Perhaps the godwit, or stone-plover, the Scolopax ægocephala of
Linnæus.
[299] See also B. xxvi. c. 83.
[300] This may be done with safety in dogs or other animals.
[301] See B. v. c. 32.
[302] See p. 68.
[303] This is not the case. Birds have kidneys, but of an irregular
form.
[304] This is a mistake. It _does_ cicatrize.
[305] Or bag.
[306] “The (principal) place.”
[307] Ajasson renders this passage: “The effects are fatal when this
organ, becoming displaced, absorbs the air.” The text is probably
corrupt.
[308] Varro, De Re Rust. B. ii. c. 4, says that he saw an instance of
this in Arcadia.
[309] This is not the case.
[310] There is no similarity whatever between the spinal marrow and
that which is found in the other bones.
[311] The hare and the partridge, for instance.
[312] There is considerable doubt what the ancients exactly meant
by the “nervi;” and whether, in fact, they had any definite idea of
“nerves,” in our acceptation of the word. Pliny here expresses the
opinions entertained by Aristotle. “Tendons,” or “sinews,” would almost
appear to be the proper translation of the word.
[313] See B. xxviii. c. 41.
[314] In allusion, probably, to hæmorrhoids, or piles.
[315] See B. vii. c. 12.
[316] Bears, dormice, serpents, &c.
[317] The polypus and the chameleon.
[318] See B. viii. cc. 51, 52.
[319] Walking-sticks are still made of it.
[320] As already mentioned, this is not the fact.
[321] See B. ix. c. 43.
[322] It is not improbable that, under this name, some kind of large
vampire bat was meant; but, as Pliny says, it is impossible to arrive
at any certain knowledge on the subject. The best account given of the
strix is that in Ovid’s Fasti, B. vi. The name was given opprobriously
to supposed witches, the “foul and midnight hags” of Shakspeare.
[323] This assertion is borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c.
14.
[324] Or biestings.
[325] See B. xxviii. c. 12. Poppæa Sabina, first the mistress, then the
wife, of the Emperor Nero.
[326] “Spuma.” He calls it so, because it floats on the surface. See B.
xxviii. c. 35. The “acor,” or acrid liquid, which he speaks of, is, no
doubt, butter-milk.
[327] Or whey.
[328] Nismes, in France. Hardouin speaks of goats’-milk cheeses made in
its neighbourhood, and known as _fromages de Baux_.
[329] Probably the modern Losere and Gevaudan. See B. iv. c. 19.
[330] For the Docleatæ, see B. iii. c. 26.
[331] For the Centrones, see B. iii. c. 24. He perhaps refers to the
modern _fromage de Passi_.
[332] The modern Marquisat de Cive, which still produces excellent
cheese.
[333] See B. xiv. c. 8.
[334] And more especially at Salona in Bithynia.
[335] “Etiam ubi non videtur major.” This is probably corrupt.
[336] He wrote a poem, in which the principal Latin dramatists are
enumerated, in the order of merit. A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 24, has
preserved a portion of it.
[337] Germanicus.
[338] This seems to be the meaning of “imbricatus.”
[339] Though wounds in the knee are highly dangerous, death does not
_necessarily_ ensue.
[340] Of another person, who had thus forfeited his bail. It was the
custom to touch the ear of the attesting witness.
[341] The goddess of retribution. See B. xxviii. c. 5, where he makes
further mention of her statue in the Capitol.
[342] The frog is, in some measure, an exception.
[343] Or “flat-foot,” “splay-foot,” “large-foot,” and “club-footed.”
[344] Words meaning “knock-kneed,” “bow-legged,” and “wry-legged.”
[345] The rhinoceros.
[346] Or wryneck.
[347] See B. x. c. 5.
[348] Supposed to be the Hirundo apus of Linnæus. Of the “oce” nothing
is known; indeed, the reading is very doubtful.
[349] B. ix. c. 44.
[350] He evidently means insects of the centipede class. See B. xxix.
c. 39.
[351] B. x. c. 83.
[352] Such as circumcision among the Jews.
[353] See B. xxxv. c. 46.
[354] Probably the buzzard; from this story also called the “triorchis.”
[355] Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 9.
[356] See B. ix. c. 52.
[357] “Aper.”
[358] B. ix. c. 7.
[359] See c. 65 of the present Book.
[360] Not the dumb son mentioned by Herodotus, who saved his father’s
life at the taking of Sardes.
[361] Like the whispering gallery of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
[362] “Non aliter quam oculis.” On this, few will be found to agree
with Pliny.
[363] And not to “conceal” them, according to the opinion of some
modern politicians.
[364] But they are borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 9.
[365] See B. xii. c. 7.
[366] B. vii. c. 2.
[367] See B. xxix. c. 23.
[368] See c. 21 of the present Book.
[369] B. ix. c. 33.
[370] Or Fish-eaters.
[371] Or bulimia.
[372] See end of B. ii.
[373] See end of B. ii.
[374] C. Tremellius Scrofa, a friend of M. Varro, and one of the early
writers on agriculture.
[375] See end of B. x.
[376] See end of B. vii.
[377] See end of B. ix.
[378] See end of B. vii.
[379] See end of B. viii.
[380] See end of B. ii.
[381] See end of B. ii.
[382] See end of B. x.
[383] See end of B. iii.
[384] Nothing seems to be known of this writer.
[385] See end of B. vii.
[386] See end of B. vii.
[387] See end of B. ii.
[388] See end of B. ii.
[389] See end of B. vi.
[390] See end of B. x.
[391] C. Oppius, one of the most intimate friends of Julius Cæsar, for
whom, with Balbus, he acted in Spain. Of his numerous biographical and
historical works, none have survived to our time.
[392] See end of B. ii.
[393] See end of B. ii.
[394] Probably Neoptolemus of Paros, who wrote a book of Epigrams, a
treatise on Languages, and other works.
[395] Of Soli, an observer of the habits of bees. His portrait is said
still to exist, on a cornelian, attentively observing a swarm of bees.
He wrote upon bees, honey, and the art of mixing wines.
[396] Probably a different writer from the one mentioned at the end of
B. viii.; nothing seems to be known of him.
[397] See end of B. viii.
[398] See end of B. viii.
[399] See end of B. x.
[400] A philosopher of Agrigentum, and disciple of Pythagoras. He is
said to have perished in the crater of Mount Etna. He wrote numerous
works, of which only some fragments exist.
[401] See end of B. iv.
[402] Apparently the same as the King Philometor, mentioned below. See
end of B. viii.
[403] Of this writer nothing seems to be known.
[404] See end of B. vii.
[405] Of Chalcedon, one of the most famous physicians of antiquity.
He was physician to Phalaris, the tyrant of Sicily, and is said to
have dissected criminals alive. He was the first that paid particular
attention to the nervous system.
[406] A native of Iulis, in Cos, or else Ceos, grandson of Aristotle,
and disciple of Theophrastus. He acquired great reputation as a
physician, at the court of Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria, where he
discovered the supposed disease of Prince Antiochus, who had fallen in
love with his step-mother, Stratonice. Of his numerous medical works,
only the titles and a few fragments exist.
[407] See end of B. vii.
[408] A physician of Laodicæa, founder of the school of the Methodici.
He was a pupil of Asclepiades, and died about B.C. 43. Of his medical
works only a few fragments survive.
[409] See end of B. ii.
[410] See end of B. viii.
[411] See end of B. viii.
[412] See end of B. viii.
[413] See end of B. iii.
[414] See end of B. vii.
[415] See King Attalus, above.
[416] “Animâ.” The notion that plants are possessed of a soul or
spirit, is derived from the Greek philosophers, who attributed to them
intellect also, and sense.
[417] Vitruvius mentions the people of Gaul, Hispania, Lusitania, and
Aquitania, as living in his day in dwellings covered with oak shingles,
or with straw.
[418] See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xi. c. 26.
[419] Desfontaines remarks, that we may still trace vestiges of
this custom in the fine trees that grow near church porches, and
in church-yards. Of course, his remark will apply to France more
particularly.
[420] It is doubtful whether the æsculus of the Romans was the same as
the bay-oak, the holm-oak, or the beech. See B. xvi. c. 4.
[421] See further on this subject in Phædrus’s Fables, B. iii. f. 17.
[422] Reckoning the promulsis, antecæna, or gustatio, not as a course,
but only a prelude, the bellaria, or dessert, at the Roman banquets,
formed the second course, or mensa. It consisted of fruits uncooked,
sweetmeats, and pastry.
[423] He alludes to the pursuit of the elephant, for the purpose of
obtaining ivory, which was extensively used in his day, in making the
statues of the divinities.
[424] A sarcastic antithesis. And yet Dalechamps would read “hominum”
instead of “numinum”!
[425] Præmissa. The exact meaning of this word does not appear. Though
all the MSS. agree in it, it is probably a corrupt reading. Plutarch,
in his Life of Camillus, says that the wine of Italy was first
introduced in Gaul by Aruns, the Etruscan.
[426] The Platanus orientalis of Linnæus. It received its name from the
Greek πλάτος, “breadth,” by reason of its wide-spreading branches.
[427] For further mention of this island, now Tremiti, see B. iii. c.
30.
[428] He alludes, probably, to the “vectigal solarium,” a sort of
ground-rent which the tributary nations paid to the Roman treasury.
Virgil and Homer speak of the shade of the plane-tree, as a pleasant
resort for festive parties.
[429] It is not improbable that Pliny, in copying from Theophrastus,
has here committed an error. That author, B. ix. c. 7, says: ἐν μὲν
γὰρ τῷ Ἀδρίᾳ πλάτανον οὔ φασιν εἶναι, πλὴν περὶ τὸ Διομήδους ἱερόν·
σπανίαν δὲ καὶ ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ πάσῃ. “They say that in Adria there are no
plane-trees, except about the temple of Diomedes: and that they are
extremely rare in Italy.” Pliny, probably, when his secretary was
reading to him, mistook the word σπανίαν, “rare,” for Ἱσπανίᾳ “in
Spain.”
[430] It has been remarked that, in reality, this process would only
tend to impede its growth. Macrobius tells us, that Hortensius was
guilty of this singular folly.
[431] Situate near the sea-shore. It was here that Plato taught. See B.
xxxi. c. 3.
[432] Caligula.
[433] It is supposed that he here alludes sarcastically to the extreme
corpulence of Caligula.
[434] M. Fée, the learned editor of the botanical books in Ajasson’s
translation, remarks, that this cannot have been the Platanus of the
botanists, and that there is no tree of Europe, which does not lose its
leaves, that at all resembles it.
[435] The tendency, namely, to lose their leaves.
[436] Grandson of Asinius Pollio. Tacitus tells us, that he was one of
those whom Piso requested to undertake his defence, when charged with
having poisoned Germanicus; but he declined the office.
[437] Or “ground plane-trees.” It is by no means uncommon to see dwarf
varieties of the larger trees, which are thus reduced to the dimensions
of mere shrubs.
[438] C. Matius Calvena, the friend of Julius and Augustus Cæsar, as
also of Cicero. He is supposed to have translated the Iliad into Latin
verse, and to have written a work on cookery.
[439] See B. xxiii. c. 55. Fée remarks, that the ancients confounded
the citron with the orange-tree.
[440] Fée remarks, that this is not the case. The arbute is described
in B. xv. c. 28.
[441] In the time of Plutarch, it had begun to be somewhat more used.
It makes one of the very finest preserves.
[442] At the present day, it is cultivated all over India, in China,
South America, and the southern parts of Europe. Fée says, that they
grow even in the open air in the gardens of Malmaison.
[443] B. xi. c. 115. Virgil says the same, Georg. B. ii. ll. 134, 135.
Theophrastus seems to say, that it was the outer rind that was so used.
[444] See B. vi. c. 20.
[445] See B. vii. c. 2. The tree to which he alludes is unknown.
[446] Georg. B. ii. ll. 116, 117.
[447] B. iii. c. 97. There is little doubt that, under the general name
of “ebony,” the wood of many kinds of trees was, and is still, imported
into the western world, so that both Herodotus and Virgil may have been
correct in representing ebony as the product of both India and Æthiopia.
[448] Herodotus says two hundred.
[449] In Italy, whither he had retired from the hostile attacks of his
fellow-citizens. It is supposed by Le Vayer and others, that Pliny is
wrong in his assertion, that Herodotus wrote to this effect while at
Thurii; though Dr. Schmitz is inclined to be of opinion that he is
right in his statement.
[450] B. iii. c. 115.
[451] B. vi. c. 35.
[452] Fée remarks, that the words of Pliny do not afford us any means
of judging precisely what tree it was that he understood by the name of
ebony. He borrows his account mainly from Theophrastus.
[453] It is not known to what tree he alludes.
[454] This account of the Ficus Indica, or religiosa, known to us as
the banian-tree, is borrowed entirely from Theophrastus. Fée remarks,
however, that he is wrong in some of his statements, for that the
leaves are not crescent-shaped, but oblong and pointed, and that the
fruit has not a pleasant flavour, and is only eaten by the birds.
[455] See B. vi. c. 23.
[456] Sprengel and Bauhin are of opinion that the banana is the tree
meant here; Dodonæus thinks that it is the pomegranate. Thevet says
that the pala is the paquovera of India, the fruit of which is called
pacona. The account is borrowed from Theophrastus.
[457] The Gymnosophists, or Brahmins.
[458] Called Syndraci in B. vi. c. 25.
[459] It is not improbable that the Tamarindus Indica of Linnæus is the
tree here alluded to: though M. Fée combats that opinion.
[460] See Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 5.
[461] Dalechamps and Desfontaines are of opinion, that the pistachio,
or Pistacia terebinthus of Linnæus, is here alluded to; but Fée
considers that there are no indications to lead to such a conclusion.
[462] It is not improbable that he may here allude to the cotton-tree,
of which further mention is made in c. xxi. of the present Book.
[463] Fée is of opinion that Cynorrhodon here means, not the dog-rose,
but the gall which is formed on the tree by the sting of the Cynips
bedeguar.
[464] Fée expresses himself at a loss to conjecture what trees are here
meant by Pliny.
[465] Fée remarks, that there are many inaccuracies in the account
here given by Pliny of the pepper-tree, and that it does not bear any
resemblance to the juniper-tree. The grains, he says, grow in clusters,
and not in a husk or pod; and he remarks, that the long pepper and the
black pepper, of which the white is only a variety divested of the
outer coat, are distinct species. He also observes, that the real long
pepper, the Piper longum of Linnæus, was not known to the ancients.
[466] Fée remarks, that this is not a correct description of ginger,
the Amomum zingiber of Linnæus. Dioscorides was one of those who
thought that ginger was the root of the pepper-tree.
[467] It is very doubtful what tree is here alluded to by Pliny, though
certain that it is not one of the pepper-trees. Sprengel takes it to be
the Daphne Thymelæa.
[468] It has been suggested that under this name the clove is meant,
though Fée and Desfontaines express a contrary opinion. Sprengel thinks
that it is the Vitex trifolia of Linnæus, and Bauhin suggests the
cubeb, the Piper cubeba of Linnæus. Fée thinks it may have possibly
been the Myrtus caryophyllata of Ceylon, the fruit of which corresponds
to the description here given by Pliny.
[469] See c. 52 of the present Book.
[470] Or “Lycium.” It is impossible to say with exactness what the
medical liquid called “Lycion” was. Catechu, an extract from the tan of
the acacia, has been suggested; though the fruit of that tree does not
answer the present description.
[471] Fée suggests that this may possibly be the Lycium Europæum of
Linnæus, a shrub not uncommonly found in the south of Europe.
[472] The Rhamnus Lycioides of Linnæus, known to us as buckthorn. The
berries of many varieties of the Rhamnus are violent purgatives.
[473] What he means under this head is not known. Fée speaks of a tree
which the Brahmins call macre, and which the Portuguese called arvore
de las camaras, arvore sancto, arvore de sancto Thome, but of which
they have given no further particulars. Acosta, Clusius, and Bauhin
have also professed to give accounts of it, but they do not lead to its
identification. De Jussieu thinks that either the Soulamea, the Rex
amaroris of Rumphius, or else the Polycardia of Commerson is meant. It
seems by no means impossible that mace, the covering of the nutmeg, is
the substance alluded to, an opinion that is supported by Gerard and
Desfontaines.
[474] “Saccharon.” Fée suggests that Pliny alludes to a peculiar kind
of crystallized sugar, that is found in the bamboo cane, though, at
the same time, he thinks it not improbable that he may have heard of
the genuine sugar-cane; as Strabo, B. xv., speaks of a honey found in
India, prepared without the aid of bees, and Lucan has the line—
“Quique bibunt tenerâ dulces ab arundine succos,”
evidently referring to a sugar in the form of a syrup, and not of
crystal, like that of the Bambos arundinacea. It is by no means
improbable, that Pliny, or rather Dioscorides, from whom he copies,
confuses the two kinds of sugar; as it is well known that the Saccharum
officinarum, or sugar-cane, has been cultivated from a very early
period in Arabia Felix.
[475] It is unknown what plant is here alluded to by Pliny, but
Sprengel suggests that it is the Acacia latronum.
[476] From the description, this would appear to be a sort of poisonous
horse-radish.
[477] There is a tree in India, as we are informed by Fée, which is
known as the Excæcaria Agallochum, the juice of which is remarkably
acrid. Sailors, on striking it with a hatchet, and causing the juice to
spirt into their eyes, have been in danger of losing their sight. It is
possible that this may be the tree here alluded to by Pliny.
[478] He borrows the account of this marvellous shrub from
Theophrastus. No such plant is likely to have ever existed; though
small, and even large, snakes may occasionally take refuge among shrubs
and hollow trees.
[479] There is little doubt that the Hedysarum Alhagi of Linnæus
is here meant, from which a kind of honey or manna flows, known as
“Eastern” manna, or tereniabin. It is not so high as the fig-tree, and
is found in Khorasan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere. The manna
distils principally in the morning.
[480] Fée remarks, that it is singular that a resinous gum, such as
bdellium, should have been used in commerce for now two thousand years,
and yet its origin remain unknown. Kæmpfer and Rumphus are of opinion,
that the tree which produces it is the one known to naturalists as the
Borassus flabelliformis of Linnæus, or the Lontarus of others. It is
imported into Europe from Arabia and India, and is often found mixed
with gum Arabic.
[481] Περατικὸν; from περατὰ γῆς, “the remotest parts of the earth,”
from which it was brought.
[482] The modern name of this tree is unknown.
[483] B. vi. c. 28.
[484] It is supposed that the Rhizophora Mangle of Linnæus is the tree
that is here described. It grows on all the coasts of India, from Siam
to the entrance of the Persian Gulf. It takes root on spots which have
been inundated by the sea, and its boughs bend downwards, and taking
root in the earth, advance gradually towards the sea. The leaf and
fruit have the characteristics of those of the arbute and almond as
here mentioned.
[485] B. vi. c. 32.
[486] Fée suggests that some kind of mangrove is probably alluded to,
of the kind known as avicennia, or bruguiera.
[487] See B. vi. c. 20.
[488] “Cotonei.” To this resemblance of its fruit to the quince, the
cotton-tree, which is here alluded to, not improbably owes its modern
name.
[489] The cotton-tree, or Gossypium arboreum of Linnæus. It is worthy
of remark, that Pliny copies here almost literally from Theophrastus.
According to Philostratus, the byssus, or fine tissues worn by the
Egyptian priests, were made of cotton.
[490] The Malthiola incana.
[491] Fée suggests that this may be a Magnolia; but, as he remarks,
most plants open and shut at certain hours; consequently, this cannot
be regarded as any peculiar characteristic, sufficient to lead with
certainty to its identification.
[492] Theophrastus, from whom our author is copying, says that this is
the case only with the fig-tree there.
[493] According to most commentators, this is the Costus Arabicus of
Linnæus. Dioscorides mentions three varieties of costus: the Arabian,
which is of the best quality, and is white and odoriferous; the Indian,
which is black and smooth; and the Syrian, which is of the colour
of wax, dusky, and strong smelling. Fée, however, doubts whether
the modern costus is the same thing as that of the ancients; for,
as he says, although it has a sweet odour, it does not deserve the
appellation of a “precious aromatic,” which we find constantly given to
it by the ancients.
[494] See B. vi. c. 23.
[495] It is probable that the nard of the ancients, from which they
extracted the famous nard-oil, was not the same plant which we know as
the Indian nard, or Andropogon nardus of Linnæus. Indeed, it has been
pretty conclusively established by Sir William Jones, in his “Asiatic
Researches,” that the Valeriana Jatamansi is the plant from which they
obtained the oil. Among the Hindoos, it is known as djatâmansi, and by
the Arabs under the name of sombul, or “spike,” from the fact of the
base being surrounded with ears or spikes, whence, probably, the Roman
appellation. This species of valerian grows in the more distant and
mountainous parts of India, Bootan and Nepaul, for instance.
[496] From the Greek, ὄζαινα, “a putrid sore.” Fée suggests that this
may have been the Nardus hadrosphærum of the moderns.
[497] Fée supposes that this is not lavender, as some have thought, but
the Allium victorialis of modern naturalists, which is still mixed with
the nard from the Andropogon. He doubts the possibility of its having
been adulterated with substances of such a different nature as those
mentioned here by Pliny.
[498] Fée is of opinion, that the Greek writers, from whom Pliny copied
this passage, intended to speak of the ears of nard, or spikenard.
[499] According to Dioscorides, this appellation only means such nard
as is cultivated in certain mountains of India which look toward
Syria, and which, according to that author, was the best nard of all.
Dalechamps and Hardouin, however, ridicule this explanation of the term.
[500] Generally supposed to be the Valeriana Celtica of modern
naturalists. See B. xxi. c. 79.
[501] Probably the Valeriana Italica of modern naturalists.
[502] See B. xix. c. 48.
[503] Known in this country as fox-glove, our Lady’s gloves, sage of
Jerusalem, or clown’s spikenard. See B. xxi. c. 16.
[504] Not always, but very seldom, Brotier says. Clusius has
established, from observation, that this plant is only a variety of the
Valeriana Celtica.
[505] Fée remarks, that the name “baccara,” in Greek, properly belonged
to this plant, but that it was transferred by the Romans to the field
nard, with which the Asarum had become confounded. It is the same as
the Asarum Europæum of modern naturalists; but it does not, as Pliny
asserts, flower twice in the year.
[506] It is by no means settled among naturalists, what plant the
Amomum of the ancients was; indeed, there has been the greatest
divergence of opinion. Tragus takes it to be a kind of bindweed:
Matthioli, the Piper Æthiopicum of Linnæus: Cordus and Scaliger,
the rose of Jericho, the Anastatica hierocuntica of Linnæus. Gesner
thinks it to have been the garden pepper, the Solanum bacciferum of
Tournefort: Cæsalpinus the cubeb, the Piper cubeba of Linnæus: Plukenet
and Sprengel the Cissus vitiginea, while Fée and Paulet look upon it as
not improbably identical with the Amomum racemosum of Linnæus. The name
is probably derived from the Arabic hahmâma, the Arabians having first
introduced it to the notice of the Greeks.
[507] Supposed to have been only the Amomum, in an unripe state, as
Pliny himself suggests.
[508] Still known in pharmacy as “cardamum.” It is not, however, as
Pliny says, found in Arabia, but in India; from which it probably
reached the Greeks and Romans by way of the Red Sea. There are three
kinds known in modern commerce, the large, the middle size, and the
small. M. Bonastre, “Journal de Pharmacie,” May, 1828, is of opinion,
that the word cardamomum signifies “amomum in pods,” the Egyptian kardh
meaning “pod,” or “husk.” It is, however, more generally supposed, that
the Greek word, καρδία, “heart,” enters into its composition.
[509] “Verus” seems a preferable reading here to “vero,” which has been
adopted by Sillig.
[510] See c. 42 of the present Book.
[511] Virgil, Georg. B. ii. l. 139, mentions Panchaia, in Arabia,
as being more especially the country of frankincense. That region
corresponds with the modern Yemen. It is, however, a well-ascertained
fact, that it grows in India as well, and it is supposed that the
greater part of it used by the ancients was in reality imported from
that country. The Indian incense is the product of a tree belonging
to the terebinth class, named by Roxburgh, who first discovered it,
Boswellia thurifera. It is more especially found in the mountainous
parts of India. On the other hand, it has been asserted that the
Arabian incense was the product of a coniferous tree, either the
Juniperus Lycia, the Juniperus Phœnicea, or the Juniperus thurifera of
Linnæus. But, as Fée justly remarks, it would appear more reasonable
to look among the terebinths of Arabia for the incense tree, if one
of that class produces it in India, and more especially because the
coniferous trees produce only resins, while the terebinths produce gum
resins, to which class of vegetable products frankincense evidently
belonged. In commerce, the gum resin, Olibanum, the produce of the
Boswellia serrata, and imported from the Levant, bears the name of
frankincense.
[512] See B. vi. c. 32. Their name is still preserved in the modern
Hadramaut, to the east of Aden.
[513] See B. vi. cc. 31 and 32. He was the son of Agrippa and Julia,
the daughter of Augustus, by whom he was adopted.
[514] This seems the most probable among these various surmises and
conjectures.
[515] These words are said by some to be derived from the Greek,
καρφὸς, “a hollow stalk,” on account of its lightness, and δᾳδίον, “a
torch,” on account of its resinous and inflammable qualities. It is,
however, much more probable that they were derived from the Arabic, and
not from the Celto-Scythic, as Poinsinet conjectures.
[516] Fée is probably right in his conjecture, that it was so called
solely in consequence of its superior strength.
[517] Meaning “drop” incense.
[518] “Undivided” incense.
[519] From their being the size of an ὄροβος, or “chick-pea.”
[520] There is some doubt as to the correctness of this reading. The
“manna” here mentioned is quite a different substance to the manna of
modern commerce, obtained from the Fraxinus ornus of naturalists.
[521] He was a kinsman of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and a man
of very austere habits. Plutarch says, that on this occasion Alexander
sent to Leonidas 600 talents’ weight of incense and myrrh.
[522] See B. vi. c. 32.
[523] Probably the same as the deity, Assabinus, mentioned by Pliny in
c. 42 of the present Book. Theophrastus mentions him as identical with
the sun, others, again, with Jupiter. Theophrastus says that the god
received not a tenth part, but a third.
[524] As to this place and the Gebanitæ, see B. vi. c. 32.
[525] There must surely be some mistake in these numbers.
[526] The Mediterranean.
[527] In c. 19 of the present Book.
[528] It is supposed to be the product of an amyris, but is not now
esteemed as a perfume; but is used in medicine as a tonic. Forskhal
has attributed to the Amyris kataf, or kafal, the production of myrrh.
According to Ehrenberg, a very similar tree, though constituting a
different species, the Balsamodendrum myrrha, also produces this
substance. It is imported into Europe from both Abyssinia and Arabia.
It was much used by the ancients, to flavour their wines.
[529] See B. vi. c. 32.
[530] Theophrastus says the terebinth.
[531] From the Greek στάζω, “to drop.” Fée observes, that the moderns
know nothing positive as to the mode of extracting myrrh from the
tree. See the account given by Ovid, Met. B. x. l. 500 _et seq._ of
the transformation of Myrrha into this tree,—“The warm drops fall from
the tree. The tears, even, have their own honour; and the myrrh that
distils from the bark bears the name of its mistress, and in no age
will remain unknown.”
[532] Fée remarks, that at the present day we are acquainted only with
one kind of myrrh; the fragments which bear an impression like those
of nails being not a distinct kind, but a simple variety in appearance
only. He thinks, also, that Pliny may very possibly be describing
several distinct resinous products, under the one name of myrrh. An
account of these various districts will be found in B. vi. c. 32.
[533] Hardouin suggests that it may be so called from the island of
Dia, mentioned by Strabo, B. xvi.
[534] “Collatitia.” The reading, however, is very doubtful.
[535] What this was is now unknown. Fée suggests that it may have been
bdellium, which is found in considerable quantities in the myrrh that
is imported at the present day.
[536] This is most probably the meaning of Pliny’s expression—“Ergo
transit in mastichen;” though Hardouin reads it as meaning that myrrh
sometimes degenerates to mastich: and Fée, understanding the passage in
the same sense, remarks that the statement is purely fabulous. Mastich,
he says, is the produce of the Pistacia lentiscus of Linnæus, which
abounds in Greece and the other parts of southern Europe. The greater
part of the mastich of commerce comes from the island of Chio. It is
impossible to conjecture to what plant Pliny here alludes, with the
head of a thistle.
[537] This kind, Fée says, is quite unknown to the moderns.
[538] This substance is still gathered from the Cistus creticus of
Linnæus, which is supposed to be the same as the plant leda, mentioned
by Pliny. It is also most probably the same as the Cisthon, mentioned
by Pliny in B. xxiv. c. 48. It is very commonly found in Spain. The
substance is gathered from off the leaves, not by the aid of goats,
but with whips furnished with several thongs, with which the shrubs
are beaten. There are two sorts of ladanum known in commerce; the
one friable, and mixed with earthy substances, and known as “ladanum
in tortis;” the other black, and soft to the fingers, the only
adventitious substances in which are a little sand and a few hairs.
[539] See B. vi. c. 32.
[540] For some further account of this substance, see B. xxix. c. 10.
Filthy as it was, the œsypum, or sweat and grease of sheep, was used by
the Roman ladies as one of their most choice cosmetics. Ovid, in his
“Art of Love,” more than once inveighs against the use of it.
[541] From the Greek ἔναιμον, “styptic,” or “blood-stopping.” It is at
the present day called gum “de lecce” in Italy. Fée says that it is not
often procured from the olive-trees of France, though it is found very
commonly on those of Naples and Calabria. It has no active powers, he
says, as a medicine.
[542] Hardouin suggests that they may be the pelagiæ, mentioned again
in B. xiii. c. 51.
[543] See B. vi. c. 31.
[544] Although the savin shrub, the Juniperus Sabina of Linnæus, bears
this name in Greek, it is evident, as Fée says, that Pliny does not
allude to it, but to a coniferous tree, as it is that family which
produces a resinous wood with a balsamic odour when ignited. Bauhin
and others would make the tree meant to be the Thuya occidentalis
of Linnæus; but, as Fée observes, that tree is in reality a native
originally of Canada, while the Thuya orientalis is a native of Japan.
He suggests, however, that the Thuya articulata of Mount Atlas may have
possibly been the citrus of Pliny.
[545] See end of B. v.
[546] All these are mentioned in B. vi. c. 31.
[547] It is not known what wood is meant under this name. Aloe, and
some other woods, when ignited are slightly narcotic.
[548] See B. v. c. 21.
[549] See B. vi. c. 30.
[550] See c. 55 of the present Book.
[551] Because its perfumes were held in such high esteem, for burning
on the piles of the dead. This, of course, was done primarily to avoid
the offensive smell.
[552] The bark of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum of the modern naturalists,
the cinnamon-tree of Ceylon.
[553] B. iii.
[554] See B. vi. c. 34.
[555] See B. vi. c. 26.
[556] As Fée observes, this description does not at all resemble
that of the cinnamon-tree of Ceylon, as known to us. M. Bonastre is
of opinion that the nutmeg-tree was known to the ancients under this
name; but, as Fée observes, the nutmeg could never have been taken for
a bark, and cinnamon is described as such in the ancient writers. He
inclines to think that their cinnamon was really the bark of a species
of amyris.
[557] See c. 33 of the present Book, and the Note.
[558] Or “wood of cinnamon.”
[559] “Interrasili.” Gold partly embossed, and partly left plain, was
thus called.
[560] The Empress Livia.
[561] There has been considerable doubt what plant it was that produced
the cassia of the ancients. Fée, after diligently enquiring into the
subject, inclines to think that it was the Laurus cassia of Linnæus,
the same tree that produces the cassia of the present day.
[562] There is little doubt that all this is fabulous.
[563] Or, “smelling like balsam.”
[564] “Looking like laurel.”
[565] “Equal to cinnamon.” Fée thinks that it is a variety of the
Laurus cassia.
[566] He probably alludes to the Daphne Cnidium of Linnæus, which, as
Fée remarks, is altogether different from the Laurus cassia, or genuine
cassia.
[567] A gum resin of some unknown species, but not improbably, Fée
thinks, the produce of some of the Amyrides. Sprengel thinks that it
was produced from the Gardenia gummifera.
[568] Aloe-wood.
[569] According to Poinsinet, these Arabic words derive their
origin from the Slavonic; the first signifying a “cordial drug,”
or “alexipharmic,” and the other a drug “which divides itself into
tablets.” It is impossible to divine what drugs are meant by these
names.
[570] Signifying the “unguent acorn,” or “nut.” There is little doubt
that the behen or ben nut of the Arabians is meant, of which there
are several sorts. It is used by the Hindoos for calico printing and
pharmacy, and was formerly employed in Europe in the arts, and for
medical purposes. It is no longer used as a perfume. The “oil of ben”
used in commerce is extracted from the fruit of the Moringa oleifera
of naturalists. It is inodorous; for which reason, Fée is of opinion
that the name signifies “the oily nut,” and quotes Dioscorides, who
says, B. iv., that an oil is extracted from this balanus, which is used
as an ingredient in unguents, in place of other oils. Fée also says
that at the present day it is used by perfumers, to fix or arrest the
evanescent odours of such flowers as the jasmine and the lily.
[571] This Æthiopian variety is quite unknown, and is, as Fée remarks,
most probably of a different species from the genuine myrobalanus.
[572] See B. vi. c. 32.
[573] “Curing thirst.” Dioscorides, B. i. c. 148, says that it was so
called from, being full of juice, which quenched thirst like water.
[574] “Palm-nut.” Fée thinks it not improbable that one of the
date-palms is meant, if we may judge from the name. He suggests that
possibly the Elais or avoira of Guinea, the Elais Guineensis, which
is found as far as Upper Egypt, and which produces a fine oil known
as palm-oil, is meant, or possibly the Douma Thebaica, a palm-tree
frequently met with in Egypt. On fermentation, a vinous drink is
extracted from the last, which is capable of producing intoxication.
[575] Fée remarks, that this must not be confounded with the Calamus
aromaticus of the moderns, of which Pliny speaks in B. xxv. c. 100,
with sufficient accuracy to enable us to identify it with the Acorus
calamus of Linnæus. It is not ascertained by naturalists what plant is
meant by Pliny in the present instance, though Fée is of opinion that
a gramineous plant of the genus Andropogon is meant. M. Guibourt has
suggested that the Indian Gentiana chirayta is the plant. From what
Pliny says in B. xiii. c. 21, it appears that this calamus grew in
Syria, which is also the native country of the Andropogon schœnanthus.
[576] See B. xxiv. c. 14. The gum resin ammoniacum is still imported
into Europe from Africa and the East, in the form of drops or cakes. It
is a mildly stimulating expectorant, and is said to be the produce of
the Dorema ammoniacum. There are still two sorts in commerce: the first
in large masses of a yellow, dirty colour, mingled with heterogeneous
substances, and of a plastic consistency. This is the phyrama of
Pliny, or mixed ammoniac. The other is in tears, of irregular form
and a whitish colour, brittle and vitreous when broken. This is the
thrauston, or “friable” ammoniac of Pliny. Jackson says, that the
plant which produces it is common in Morocco, and is called feskouk,
resembling a large stalk of fennel. The ammoniac of Morocco is not,
however, imported into this country, being too much impregnated with
sand, in consequence of not being gathered till it falls to the ground.
[577] Solinus tells us, that the tree itself is called Metops.
[578] It is clear that, under this name, certain lichens of a hairy or
filamentary nature are meant. They adhere, Dioscorides tells us, to the
cedar, the white poplar, and the oak. The white ones belong, probably,
to the Usnea florida of Linnæus, the red ones to the Usnea barbata, and
the black ones to the Alectoria jubata, an almost inodorous lichen.
[579] Probably the Roccella tinctoria of Linnæus, a lichen most
commonly found upon rocks.
[580] The henné, the Lawsonia inermis of the modern naturalists, a
shrub found in Egypt, Syria, and Barbary. From this tree the henna is
made with which the women of the East stain the skin of their hands and
feet.
[581] The jujube-tree. See B. xv. c. 14.
[582] See B. xx. c. 82.
[583] Or privet.
[584] But in B. xxiv. c. 68, he says that this plant grows in the
island of Rhodes.
[585] According to Fée, this is the same as the Lignum Rhodianum, or
wood of Rhodes, of commerce, sometimes also called, but incorrectly,
wood of roses. It is, probably, the same as the Convolvulus scoparius
of Linnæus.
[586] Or “red sceptre,” probably so called from the flowers clustering
along the whole length of the branches.
[587] A liquid matter extracted from the beaver.
[588] Generally regarded as identical with the Teucrium Marum of
Linnæus, a sweet-smelling shrub found in the south of Europe and the
East, by us commonly known as “herb mastich,” somewhat similar to
marjoram. Fée says that the marum of Egypt is a kind of sage, the
Salvia Æthiopis of Linnæus.
[589] Balsam (or balm of Mecca, as it is sometimes called) is the
produce of two trees, probably varieties of one another, of the
terebinth family, belonging to the genus Amyris. So far from being a
native solely of Judæa, Bruce assures us that its original country was
that which produces myrrh, in the vicinity of Babelmandel, and that the
inhabitants use the wood solely for fuel. In Judæa it appears to have
been cultivated solely in gardens; and it was this tree which produced
the famous balm of Gilead of Scripture. The balsam trees known to us do
not at all correspond with Pliny’s description, as they do not resemble
either the vine or myrtle, nor are their leaves at all like those of
rue.
[590] “Malleolis.” So called when the new shoot of the tree springing
from a branch of the former year, is cut off for the sake of planting,
with a bit of the old wood on each side of it, in the form of a mallet.
[591] “Easily cut.” This and the other kinds, the names of which mean
“rough barked,” and “good length,” are probably only varieties of the
same tree, in different states.
[592] This is said, probably, in allusion to the smell, and not the
taste. Fée remarks, that Pliny speaks with a considerable degree of
exaggeration, as its odour is very inferior to that of several balsams
which contain benzoic acid. The balsam obtained by incision, as
mentioned by Pliny, is not brought to Europe, but only that obtained
by the process of decoction; which is known as “balm of Mecca,” or
of Judæa. It is difficult to believe, according to Fée, that it was
adulterated with the substances here mentioned by Pliny; oil of roses
having been always a very precious commodity, wax being likely to
change its nature entirely, and gums not being of a nature to combine
with it. Its asserted effects upon milk he states to be entirely
fabulous; the statement is derived from Dioscorides.
[593] The concha, or “shell,” was a Greek and Roman liquid measure, of
which there were two sizes. The smaller was half a cyathus, .0412 of an
English pint; the larger was about three times the size of the former,
and was known also as the oxybaphum.
[594] Or “wood of balsam.” It is still known in European commerce by
its ancient name. The fruit is called Carpobalsamum.
[595] See B. xxvi. cc. 53, 54.
[596] These localities are mentioned in B. v.