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—

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 ?e?at????; from pe?at? ???, “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, ??a??a, “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, ?a?d?a, “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 Phoenicea, 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, ?a?f??, “a hollow stalk,” on account of its lightness, and d?d???, “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 ?????, 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 st???, “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 oesypum, 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 ??a???, “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.”

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 schoenanthus.

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.

597 The Storax officinalis of LinnÆus, a tree found in the south of Europe and the Levant. The variety found in France, and known as the Aliboufier, produces no storax, or at least a very small proportion. The storax of commerce appears in three states—grain storax, with which Pliny does not appear to have been acquainted; amygdalite, which is perhaps the sort which he speaks of as adulterated with bitter almonds; and lump storax, of reddish brown colour, which is frequently mixed with wood dust, or worm dust, as mentioned by Pliny, and is but little esteemed. The tree is also called Liquidambar styraciflua.

598 A shrub of the family of OmbelliferÆ, belonging to the genus bubon. It is a native of Asia Minor and Syria.

599 See B. xix. c. 52, and B. xx. c. 75.

600 This was a common notion with the Romans. Virgil, Georg. B. iii. l. 415, says:—

Though considered to produce a pleasant perfume by the ancients, it is no longer held in estimation for that quality, and is only employed in some slight degree for medical purposes.

601 The produce of the Pastinaca opopanax of LinnÆus, or the Panax Copticum of Bauhin, an umbelliferous plant which abounds in the East, and is not uncommon in the south of France. The gum called Opopanax was formerly used, and its supposed virtues are indicated by its name, which signifies “the juice which is the universal remedy.”

602 The umbelliferous plant known as the Heracleum spondylium of LinnÆus. It is commonly found in France, where it is called Berce-branc-ursine. It received its name from the resemblance of its smell to that of the sphondyle, a fetid kind of wood-beetle.

603 Some suppose this tree to be the Laurus cassia of LinnÆus, or wild cinnamon; others take it for the betel, the Piper betel of LinnÆus. Clusius thinks that the name is derived from the Indian Tamalpatra, the name given from time immemorial to the leaf of a tree known by the Arabs as the Cadegi-indi, possibly the same as the Katou-carua of the Malabars.

604 From the Greek ?f?????, being made of unripe grapes. As FÉe remarks, that made from the olive is correctly described as a kind of oil, but that made from the grape must have been a rob, or pure verjuice. These two liquids must have had totally different qualities, and resembled each other in nothing but the name. That extracted from the olive is mentioned again in B. xxiii. c. 4, in reference to its medicinal properties.

605 These grapes are described in B. xiv. c. 4 and c. 11.

606 “Reliquum corpus.” It is not clear what is the meaning of this. The passage is either in a corrupt state, or defective.

607 A singular metal, one would think, for keeping verjuice in.

608 From the Greek ????, “moss.” He speaks again of these grapes of the white poplar in B. xxiv. c. 34; also in c. 51 of the present Book. Hardouin thinks that he is speaking of moss. FÉe is of opinion, that the blossoms or buds of the tree are meant, which have a fragrant smell. This is the more probable, as we find Pliny here speaking of the oenanthe, or vine-flower, by which FÉe supposes that he means the blossom of the Vitis vinifera of LinnÆus, which exhales a delightful perfume.

609 The bud, probably, of the Juniperus Lycia.

610 See B. vi. c. 31.

611 Said to have been a surname given by some nations to the god Bacchus.

612 It is generally supposed by the commentators, that Pliny makes a mistake here, and that the elate or spathe was not a tree, but the envelope or capsule, containing the flowers and fruit of a tree, which is supposed by some to have been really the Phoenix dactylifera, or date-palm. There can be little doubt that he is mistaken in his mention of the abies or fir-tree here. See B. xxiii. c. 53.

613 Bauhin thinks that this juice or oil was extracted from the nutmeg, the Myristica moschata of Thunberg, and Bonastre is of the same opinion. But, as FÉe observes, the nutmeg is a native of India, and Pliny speaks of the Comacum as coming from Syria. Some authors, he adds, who are of this opinion, think also that the other cinnamomum mentioned by Pliny was no other than the nutmeg, which they take to be the same as the chrysobalanos, or “golden nut,” of Galen.

614 See end of B. ii.

615 See end of B. ii.

616 See end of B. vii.

617 Fabianus Papirius: see end of B. ii.

618 See end of B. ii.

619 See end of B. iii.

620 The son of a freedman; some further particulars are given of him by Pliny in B. xxxiii. c. 1. By his talents and eloquence, he attained considerable distinction at Rome. He was made a senator by Appius Claudius, and was curule Ædile B.C. 303. He published a collection of legal rules, entitled the “Jus Flavianum.”

621 See end of B. viii.

622 See end of B. iii.

623 See end of B. vii.

624 See end of B. v.

625 See end of B. ii.

626 Probably the same as the Niger mentioned by Dioscorides as a writer on Materia Medica. He is also mentioned by Epiphanius and Galen; but Dioscorides charges him with numerous blunders in his accounts of vegetable productions.

627 A compiler of Roman history, who wrote at the beginning of the second century before Christ. He wrote Annals of Rome from the earliest to his own times: only a few fragments of his work have survived.

628 See end of B. ii.

629 C. Sempronius Tuditanus, consul of Rome, B.C. 129. He wrote a book of historical Commentaries. He was maternal grandfather of the orator Hortensius.

630 See end of B. ii.

631 See end of B. iii.

632 See end of B. ii.

633 A native of Olynthus. His mother, Hero, was a cousin of the philosopher Aristotle, under whose tutelage he was educated. It is generally supposed that he was put to death by order of Alexander the Great, but in what manner is a matter of uncertainty. He wrote a History of Greece, and numerous other learned works. Some MSS. are still extant, professing to be his writings; but they are generally looked upon as spurious.

634 See end of B. vii.

635 See end of B. vii.

636 A native of Lampsacus, and disciple of Diogenes the Cynic. He accompanied Alexander the Great in his Asiatic expedition. He wrote a history of the reigns of Philip and Alexander, and a history of Greece, in twelve books. Only a few fragments of his works are left.

637 See end of B. vii.

638 See end of B. vi.

639 See end of B. ii.

640 There was a native of MendÆ, in Sicily, of this name, who wrote a history of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. It was, probably, a different person of this name who wrote a work on the East; if such is the case, Pliny most probably quotes from the work of the latter.

641 Nothing seems to be known of this writer; but it is suggested that he may have accompanied Nearchus and Onesicritus in the East.

642 See end of B. vi.

643 Nothing is known of him; but Hardouin suggests that he may have accompanied Alexander the Great in his Eastern expedition.

644 See end of B. iv.

645 An officer at the court of Alexander the Great, who wrote a collection of anecdotes respecting the private life and reign of that emperor, some fragments of which are preserved by AthenÆus.

646 See end of B. iv.

647 He is supposed to have been the same with the person of that name who wrote a history of Alexander the Great; but nothing further is known of him.

648 A physician of Neapolis, who is supposed to have lived in the early part of the first century after Christ.

649 A writer on medicine, of whom all further particulars have perished.

650 Possibly Ephippus of Olynthus, a Greek historian of the reign of Alexander the Great.

651 See end of B. viii.

652 An ancient Greek historian, mentioned also by Strabo; but no further particulars are known of him.

653 The founder of the dynasty of the Egyptian Ptolemies, which ended in Cleopatra, B.C. 38: he wrote a narrative of the wars of Alexander, which is frequently quoted by the later writers, and served as the groundwork for Arrian’s history.

654 A native of Pella, who wrote a history of Macedonia down to the wars of Alexander the Great. There was another writer of the same name, a native of Philippi, who also wrote a treatise, either geographical or historical, relative to Macedonia.

655 A native of Amphipolis, though some make him to have been an Ephesian. The age in which he lived is not exactly known. He attacked the writings of Homer with such uncalled-for asperity, that his name has been proverbial for a snarling, captious critic. He is said to have met with a violent death. His literary productions were numerous, but none of them have come down to us.

656 See end of B. ii.

657 See end of B. viii.

658 See end of B. xi.

659 See end of B. iii.

660 See end of B. v.

661 See end of B. xi.

662 A physician of Heraclea, near Ephesus. He wrote commentaries on the works of Hippocrates.

663 Nothing is known of him; but it has been suggested that he may have been the author of a few fragments on veterinary surgery which still exist.

664 There were many physicians and surgeons of this name, but probably Dionysius of Samos is meant, or else Sallustius Dionysius, quoted by Pliny, B. xxxii. c. 26.

665 Also called Democedes, a physician of Crotona, who practised at Ægina. He was afterwards physician to Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, and King Darius, whose foot he cured. His work on medicine has perished.

666 Nothing whatever is known of this writer.

667 Nothing is known relative to this writer.

668 Nothing is known of him.

669 Or IÖlaus, a native of Bithynia, who wrote a work on Materia Medica. He was probably a contemporary of Heraclides of Tarentum, in the third century B.C.

670 A physician of Tarentum, who belonged to the Empiric sect. He wrote several medical works, and is highly commended by Galen. Only a few fragments of his writings remain.

671 An historical and geographical writer, frequently quoted by Pliny. From the mention made of him in B. xxxvii. c. 2, it would appear that he flourished during the time of Pliny, or very shortly before.

672 See end of B. ii.

673 FÉe remarks, that most of the unguents and perfumes of which Pliny here speaks would find but little favour at the present day.

674 This does not appear to be exactly the case, for in the twenty-third Book of the Iliad, l. 186, we find “rose-scented” oil mentioned, indeed, Pliny himself alludes to it a little further on.

675 “Nidorem.” This term was used in reference to the smell of burnt or roasted animal substances. It is not improbable that he alludes to the stench arising from the burnt sacrifices.

676 The “Thuya articulata.” See c. 29 of the present Book.

677 “Scrinium.” See B. vii. c. 30.

678 The use of perfumes more probably originated in India, than among the Persians.

679 But of seeds or plants.

680 The perfumes of Delos themselves had nothing in particular to recommend them; but as it was the centre of the worship of Apollo, it is not improbable that exquisite perfumes formed a large proportion of the offerings brought thither from all parts of the world.

681 In Egypt. See B. v. c. 11. The unguents of Mendes are again mentioned in the present Chapter.

682 Or flower-de-luce. This perfume was called Irinum. The Iris Florentina of the botanists, FÉe says, has the smell of the violet. For the composition of this perfume, see Dioscorides, B. i. c. 67.

683 Rhodinum.

684 See B. v. c. 26.

685 Crocinum; made from the Crocus sativus of naturalists.

686 See B. xii. c. 62. It was made from the flowers of the vine, mixed with omphacium.

688 Melinum. See B. xxiii. c. 54.

689 Cyprinum. See B. xii. c. 51. The cyprus was the modern Lawsonia inermis.

690 Made from the oil of bitter almonds. See B. xv. c. 7.

691 Or “all Athenian.” We find in AthenÆus, B. xv. c. 15, the composition of this unguent.

692 From what is said by Apollonius in the passage of AthenÆus last quoted, it has been thought that this was the same as the unguent called nardinum. It is very doubtful, however.

693 Narcissinum. See B. xxi. c. 75. Dioscorides gives the composition of this unguent, B. i. c. 54.

694 Among the stymmata, Dioscorides ranges the sweet-rush, the sweet-scented calamus and xylo-balsamum; and among the hedysmata amomum, nard, myrrh, balsam, costus, and marjoram. The latter constituted the base of unguents, the former were only added occasionally.

695 Cinnabar is never used to colour cosmetics at the present day, from its tendency to excoriate the skin. See B. xxiii. c. 39.

696 This is still used for colouring cosmetics at the present day. See B. xxii. c. 23.

697 FÉe remarks, that salt can be of no use; but by falling to the bottom without dissolving, would rather tend to spoil the unguent.

698 See B. xii. c. 60. The name “bryon” seems also to have been extended to the buds of various trees of the Conifera class and of the white poplar. It is probably to the buds of the last tree that Pliny here alludes.

699 Oil of ben. See B. xii. c. 48.

700 Or metopium. See Note 690 above.

701 Made from olives. See B. xii. c. 60.

702 See B. xii. c. 29.

703 The modern Andropogon schoenanthus. See B. xii. c. 48.

704 See B. xii. c. 48.

705 Carpobalsamum. See. B. xii. c. 54.

706 See B. xii. c. 56.

707 Fluid resin of coniferous trees of Europe.

708 See B. xv. c. 35.

709 Cupressus semper-virens. He does not say what part of the tree was employed.

710 See B. xii. c. 36.

711 See c. 34 of the present Book.

712 The alkanet and cinnabar were only used for colouring.

713 “Sampsuchinum.” It is generally supposed that the sampsuchum, and the amaracus were the same, the sweet marjoram, or Origanum marjorana of LinnÆus. FÉe, however, is of a contrary opinion. See B. xxi. c. 35. In Dioscorides, B. i. c. 59, there is a difference made between sampsuchinum and amaracinum, though but a very slight one.

714 The bark of the Cassia lignea of the pharmacopoea, the Laurus cassia of botany. See B. xii. c. 43.

715 See B. xii. c. 26. The Andropogon nardus of LinnÆus.

716 See B. xii. c. 41.

717 See B. xxiii. c. 54, also B. xv. c. 10. The Malum struthium, or “sparrow quince,” was an oblong variety of the fruit.

718 Sesamum orientale of LinnÆus. See B. xviii. c. 22, and B. xxii. c. 54.

719 Balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c. 54.

720 Southernwood. The Artemisia abrotonum of LinnÆus.

721 Or lily unguent, made of the lily of Susa, which had probably a more powerful smell than that of Europe. Dioscorides gives its composition, B. i. c. 63.

722 The Crocus sativus of LinnÆus.

723 Cyprinum. It has been previously mentioned in this Chapter.

724 See B. xii. c. 52.

725 The gum resin of the Pastinaca opopanax of LinnÆus. See B. xii. c. 57.

726 Or unguent of fenugreek, from the Greek t????, meaning that plant, the Trigonella foenum GrÆcum of LinnÆus. See B. xxiv. c. 120.

727 See B. ii. c. 26, and B. xxi. c. 68-70.

728 The Trifolium melilotus of LinnÆus. See B. xxi. c. 30.

729 See B. xii. c. 53.

730 He would imply that it was so called from the Greek e???, “great;” but it was more generally said that it received its name from its inventor, Megalus.

731 See B. xii. c. 5.

732 FÉe does not appear to credit this statement. By the use of the word “ventiletur,” “fanned” may be possibly implied.

733 See B. xii. c. 59.

734 The Agnus castus of LinnÆus. See B. xxiv. c. 38. The leaves are quite inodorous, though the fruit of this plant is slightly aromatic.

735 “Externa.” The reading is doubtful, and it is difficult to say what is the exact meaning of the word.

736 Cinnamomino.

737 Nardinum.

738 Or leaf unguent, so called from being made of leaves of nard. See B. xii. c. 27.

739 See B. xii. c. 25.

740 See B. xii. c. 28.

741 See B. xii. c. 26, 27, where the list is given.

742 See B. xii. c. 35.

743 Susinum. See p. 163.

744 Summa auctoritas rei.

745 See B. xii. c. 46.

746 See B. xii. c. 53.

747 See B. xii. c. 55.

748 See B. xii. c. 37.

749 See B. xii. c. 48.

750 See B. xii. c. 48.

751 See B. xii. c. 45.

752 FÉe suggests that this may be the NymphÆa coerulea of Savigny, a plant that is common in the Nile, and the flowers of which exhale a sweet odour.

753 The diapasmata were dry, odoriferous powders, similar to those used at the present day in sachets and scent-bags.

754 “FÆcem unguenti.”

755 This word is still used in pharmacy to denote the husks or residuary matter left after the extraction of the juice.

756 See B. xxxvi. c. 12. See also Mark xiv. 7, and John xii. 3. Leaden boxes were also used for a similar purpose.

757 Odores.

758 “Heres.” The person was so called who succeeded to the property, whether real or personal, of an intestate.

759 See B. xvii. c. 3, where he quotes this passage from Cicero at length. It appears to be from De Orat. B. iii. c. 69. Both Cicero and Pliny profess to find a smell that arises from the earth itself, through the agency of the sun. But, as FÉe remarks, pure earth is perfectly inodorous. He suggests, however, that this odour attributed by the ancients to the earth, may in reality have proceeded from the fibrous roots of thyme and other plants. If such is not the real solution, it seems impossible to suggest any other.

760 By giving preference to the more simple odours.

761 “Crassitudo.”

762 Or “thick” unguent.

763 We learn from AthenÆus, and a passage in the Aulularia of Plautus, that this was done long before Nero’s time, among the Greeks.

764 Who succeeded Galba. He was one of Nero’s favourite companions in his debaucheries.

765 Caligula.

766 Solium.

767 After victories, for instance, or when marching orders were given.

768 This is said in bitter irony.

769 Sub casside.

770 Asia Minor more particularly.

771 Exotica.

772 The organs of taste and of smell.

773 We have this fact alluded to in the works of Plautus, Juvenal, Martial, and Ælian. The Greeks were particularly fond of mixing myrrh with their wine. Nard wine is also mentioned by Plautus. Miles Gl. iii. 2, 11.

774 Or Lucius Plautius Plancus. He was proscribed by the triumvirs, with the sanction of his brother. In consequence of his use of perfumes, the place of his concealment “got wind;” and in order to save his slaves, who were being tortured to death because they would not betray him, he voluntarily surrendered himself.

775 Attaching to the triumvirate.

776 Capua, its capital, was the great seat of the unguent and perfume manufacture in Italy.

777 The Phoenix dactylifera of LinnÆus. See also B. xii. c. 62, where he seems also to allude to this tree.

778 At the present day this is not the fact. The village of La Bordighiera, situate on an eminence of the Apennines, grows great quantities of dates, of good quality. At Hieres, Nice, San Remo, and Genoa, they are also grown.

779 This, too, is not the fact. The dates of Valencia, Seville, and other provinces of Spain, are sweet, and of excellent quality.

780 Pliny is wrong again in this statement. The date of Barbary, Tunis, Algiers, and Bildulgerid, the “land of dates,” is superior in every respect to that of the East.

781 The Æthiopians, as we learn from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

782 Or in a wild state.

783 “Tectorii vicem.” They were probably planted in rows, close to the wall.

784 This mode of ascending the date-palm is still practised in the East.

785 See B. xvi. c. 37.

786 “Umbracula.” The fibres of the leaves were probably platted or woven, and the “umbracula” made in much the same manner as the straw and fibre hats of the present day.

787 Most of this is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. ii. 9.

788 FÉe remarks, that this account is quite erroneous.

789 This he copies also from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

790 Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8, mentions this as a kind of date peculiar to Cyprus.

791 This is said solely in relation to the date of Cyprus.

792 Or “dwellers in tents;” similar to the modern Bedouins.

793 FÉe remarks, that in these words we find the first germs of the sexual system that has been established by the modern botanists. He thinks that it is clearly shown by this account, that Pliny was acquainted with the fecundation of plants by the agency of the pollen.

794 In allusion to the pollen, possibly. See the last Note.

795 “Lanugine.” It is possible that in the use of this word, also, he may allude to the pollen. Under the term “pulvis,” “dust,” he probably alludes in exaggerated terms to the same theory.

796 The same methods of propagating the palm are still followed in the East, and in the countries near the tropics.

797 In c. 7 of the present Book. See also B. xvii. c. 3.

798 FÉe mentions one near Elvas in Spain, which shot up into seven distinct trees, as it were, from a single trunk. The Douma Thebaica, he says, of Syria and Egypt, a peculiar kind of palm, is also bifurcated. The fruit of it, he thinks, are very probably the PhÆnico-balanus of B. xii. c. 47.

799 “Spado.” Represented by the Greek e??????? and ???????.

800 “CÆduÆ.” Though this is the fact as to some palm-trees, the greater part perish after being cut; the vital bud occupying the summit, and the trunk not being susceptible of any increase.

801 Cerebrum.

802 The ChamÆreps humilis of the modern botanists. It is found, among other countries, in Spain, Morocco, and Arabia.

803 Vitilia.

804 “Vivaces.” Perhaps it may mean that the wood retains the fire for a long time, when it burns.

805 FÉe suggests that Pliny may possibly have confounded the fruit of other palms with the date.

806 This seems to have been a general name, as Pliny says, meaning an eunuch; but it is evident that it was also used as a proper name, as in the case of the eunuch who slew Artaxerxes, Ochus, B.C. 338, by poison, and of another eunuch who belonged to Darius, but afterwards fell into the hands of Alexander, of whom he became an especial favourite. The name is sometimes written “BagoÜs,” and sometimes “Bagoas.”

807 Dominantis in aula.

808 From the Greek s?a????, “a wild boar,” as Pliny afterwards states; they being so called from their peculiar wild taste.

809 See B. vi. c. 39.

810 Said to have been so called from the Greek ????, “the head,” and ??d?a, “stupidity,” owing to the heady nature of the wine extracted from the fruit.

811 See B. vi. c. 32, and B. xiv. c. 19.

812 The Jericho of Scripture.

813 AthenÆus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting Rome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of “NicolaÄn,” down to the middle ages.

814 Pliny would imply that they are so called from the Greek ?d??f?a, “a sister,” as being of sister quality to the caryotÆ; but it is much more probable, as FÉe remarks, that they got this name from being attached in pairs to the same pedicle or stalk.

815 Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greek pat??, “to tread under foot,” and Hardouin is of that opinion. FÉe, however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac “patach,” “to expand,” or “open,” or else from the Hebrew “pathah,” the name of the first vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form.

816 From the Greek ??da???, “vulgar,” or “common,” it is supposed. The Jews probably called them so, as being common, or offered by the Gentiles to their idols and divinities. Pliny evidently considers that in the name given to them no compliment was intended to the deities of the heathen mythology.

817 From its extreme driness, and its shrivelled appearance.

819 ????? in the Greek. It is supposed by Sprengel to be the same as the Cycas circinnalis of LinnÆus; but, as FÉe remarks, that is only found in India.

820 From the Greek, meaning “sweetmeats,” or “dessert fruit:” he probably means that in Syria and some parts of Phoenicia they were thus called.

821 This story, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 5, is doubted by FÉe, who says that in the green state they are so hard and nauseous, that it is next to impossible to eat sufficient to be materially incommoded by them.

822 The Pistacia vera of LinnÆus. It was introduced into Rome in the reign of Tiberius. The kernel is of no use whatever in a medical point of view, and what Pliny says about its curing the bite of serpents is perfectly fabulous.

823 See B. xv. c. 19. The “carica” was properly the “Carian” fig. “Ficus carica” is, however, the name given to the common fig by the modern botanists.

824 The parent of our Damascenes, or damsons. See B. xv. c. 13.

825 Supposed to be the Corda myxa of LinnÆus. See B. xv. c. 15.

826 The Juniperus communis of LinnÆus.

827 The Juniperus Lycia, and the Juniperus Phoenicia, probably, of LinnÆus. It has been supposed by some, that it is these trees that produce the frankincense of Africa; but, as FÉe observes, the subject is enveloped in considerable obscurity.

828 The “sharp-leaved” cedar. The Juniperus oxycedrus of LinnÆus.

829 The “Pinus cedrus” of LinnÆus. The name “cedrus” was given by the ancients not only to the cedar of Lebanon, but to many others of the ConiferÆ as well, and more particularly to several varieties of the juniper.

830 See B. xxxvi. c. 4.

831 Pistacia terebinthus of LinnÆus.

832 These varieties, FÉe says, are not observed by modern naturalists.

833 Garidel has remarked, that the trunk of this tree produces coriaceous vesicles, filled with a clear and odoriferous terebinthine, in which pucerons, or aphides, are to be seen floating.

834 “Rhus.” The Rhus coriaria of LinnÆus. Pliny is wrong in distinguishing this tree into sexes, as all the flowers are hermaphroditical, and therefore fruitful.

835 It is still used by curriers in preparing leather.

836 See B. xxiv. c. 79. The fruit, which has a pleasant acidity, was used for culinary purposes by the ancients, as it is by the Turks at the present day.

837 The Ficus sycamorus of LinnÆus. It receives its name from being a fig-tree that bears a considerable resemblance to the “morus,” or mulberry-tree.

838 This is not the case.

839 This appears to be doubtful, although, as FÉe says, the fruit ripens but very slowly.

840 This, FÉe says, is a fallacy.

841 “Aliam omnem.” This reading seems to be very doubtful.

842 This wood was very extensively used in Egypt for making the outer cases, or coffins, in which the mummies were enclosed.

843 This account is borrowed almost entirely from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 2. A variety of the sycamore is probably meant. It is still found in the Isle of Crete.

844 He seems to mean that the buds do not shoot forth into leaves; the reading, however, varies in the editions, and is extremely doubtful.

845 Grossus.

846 The Ceratonia siliqua of LinnÆus. It is of the same size as the sycamore, but resembles it in no other respect. It is still common in the localities mentioned by Pliny, and in the south of Spain.

847 Theophrastus in the number, Hist. Plant. i. 23, and iv. 2. It bears no resemblance to the fig-tree, and the fruit is totally different from the fig. Pliny, too, is wrong in saying that it does not grow in Egypt; the fact being that it is found there in great abundance.

848 See B. xviii. c. 74.

849 FÉe identifies it with the Egyptian almond, mentioned by Pliny in B. xv. c. 28; the Myrobalanus chebulus of Wesling, the Balanites Ægyptiaca of Delille, and the Xymenia Ægyptiaca of LinnÆus. Schreber and Sprengel take it to be the Cordia Sebestana of LinnÆus; but that is a tree peculiar to the Antilles. The fruit is in shape like a date, enclosing a large stone with five sides, and covered with a little viscous flesh, of somewhat bitter, though not disagreeable flavour. It is found in the vicinity of Sennaar, and near the Red Sea. The Arabs call it the “date of the Desert.”

850 See B. xviii. c. 68.

851 See B. xv. c. 34.

852 Or ben. See B. xii. cc. 46, 47.

853 Many have taken this to be the cocoa-nut tree; but, as FÉe remarks, that is a tree of India, and this of Egypt. There is little doubt that it is the doum of the Arabs, the Cucifera Thebaica of Delille. The timber of the trunk is much used in Egypt, and of the leaves carpets, bags, and panniers are made. In fact, the description of it and its fruit is almost identical with that here given by Pliny.

854 The seed or stone of the doum is still used in Egypt for making the beads of chaplets: it admits of a very high polish.

855 Materies crispioris elegantiÆ.

856 See B. xxiv. c. 67. This is, no doubt, the Acacia Nilotica of LinnÆus, which produces the gum Arabic of modern commerce.

857 This is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 3. FÉe suggests that it may have been a kind of myrobalanus. Sprengel identifies it with the Cordia sebestana of the botanists.

858 “Fuit.” From the use of this word he seems uncertain as to its existence in his time; the account is copied from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 3. FÉe suggests that he may here allude to the Baobab, the Adansonia digitata, which grows in Senegal and Sennaar to an enormous size. Prosper Alpinus speaks of it as existing in Egypt. The Arabs call it El-omarah, and the fruit El-kongles.

859 The Mimosa polyacanthe, probably. FÉe says that the mimosÆ, respectively known as casta, pudibunda, viva, and sensitiva, with many of the inga, and other leguminous trees, are irritable in the highest degree. The tree here spoken of he considers to be one of the acacias. The passage in Theophrastus speaks of the leaf as shrinking, and not falling, and then as simply reviving.

860 The Acacia Nilotica of LinnÆus, from which we derive the gum Arabic of commerce; and of which a considerable portion is still derived from Egypt.

861 These gums are chemically different from gum Arabic, and they are used for different purposes in the arts.

862 The vine does not produce a gum; but when the sap ascends, a juice is secreted, which sometimes becomes solid on the evaporation of the aqueous particles. This substance contains acetate of potassa, which, by the decomposition of that salt, becomes a carbonate of the same base.

863 This is not a gum, but a resinous product of a peculiar nature. It is known to the moderns by the name of “olivine.”

864 The sap of the elm leaves a saline deposit on the bark, principally formed of carbonate of potassa. FÉe is at a loss to know whether Pliny here alludes to this or to the manna which is incidentally formed by certain insects on some trees and reeds. But, as he justly says, would Pliny say of the latter that it is “ad nihil utile”—“good for nothing”?

865 A resinous product, no doubt. The frankincense of Africa has been attributed by some to the Juniperus Lycia and Phoenicia.

866 The PenÆa Sarcocolla of LinnÆus. The gum resin of this tree is still brought from Abyssinia, but it is not used in medicine. This account is from Dioscorides, B. iii. c. 99. The name is from the Greek s???, “flesh,” and ????a, “glue.”

867 See B. xxiv. c. 78.

868 Three denarii per pound.

869 It is hardly necessary to state that this is not the fact. This plant is the Cyperus papyrus of LinnÆus, the “berd” of the modern Egyptians.

870 Il. B. vi. l. 168. See B. xxxiii. c. 4, where the tablets which are here called “pugillares,” are styled “codicilli” by Pliny.

871 His argument is, that paper made from the papyrus could not be known in the time of Homer, as that plant only grew in certain districts which had been rescued from the sea since the time of the poet.

872 Od. B. iv. l. 355.

873 See B. ii. c. 87.

874 There is little doubt that parchment was really known many years before the time of Eumenes II., king of Pontus. It is most probable that this king introduced extensive improvements in the manufacture of parchment, for Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in his time; and in B. v. c. 58, he states that the Ionians had been accustomed to give the name of skins, d?f???a?, to books.

875 Brachiali radicis obliquÆ crassitudine.

876 This was a pole represented as being carried by Bacchus and his Bacchanalian train. It was mostly terminated by the fir cone, that tree being dedicated to Bacchus, in consequence of the use of its cones and turpentine in making wine. Sometimes it is surmounted by vine or fig leaves, with grapes or berries arranged in form of a cone.

877 This is not the fact: it has seed in it, though not very easily perceptible. The description here given is otherwise very correct.

878 Among the ancients the term papyrus was used as a general appellation for all the different plants of the genus Cyperus, which was used for making mats, boats, baskets, and numerous other articles: but one species only was employed for making paper, the Cyperus papyrus, or Byblos. FÉe states that the papyrus is no longer to be found in the Delta, where it formerly abounded.

879 See B. xii. c. 48.

880 Sometimes translated hemp. A description will be given of it in B. xix. c. 7.

881 “Intexere.” This would almost appear to mean that they embroidered or interwove the characters. The Persians still write on a stuff made of white silk, gummed and duly prepared for the purpose.

882 Or “holy” paper. The priests would not allow it to be sold, lest it might be used for profane writing; but after it was once written upon, it was easily procurable. The Romans were in the habit of purchasing it largely in the latter state, and then washing off the writing, and using it as paper of the finest quality. Hence it received the name of “Augustus,” as representing in Latin its Greek name “hieraticus,” or “sacred.” In length of time it became the common impression, as here mentioned, that this name was given to it in honour of Augustus CÆsar.

883 Near the amphitheatre, probably, of Alexandria.

884 He alludes to Q. Remmius Fannius PalÆmon, a famous grammarian of Rome, though originally a slave. Being manumitted, he opened a school at Rome, which was resorted to by great numbers of pupils, notwithstanding his notoriously bad character. He appears to have established, also, a manufactory for paper at Rome. Suetonius, in his treatise on Illustrious Grammarians, gives a long account of him. He is supposed to have been the preceptor of Quintilian.

885 Fanniana.

886 In Lower Egypt.

887 Ex vilioribus ramentis.

888 Of Alexandria, probably.

889 “Shop-paper,” or “paper of commerce.”

890 Otherwise, probably, the rope would not long hold together.

891 FÉe remarks, that this is by no means the fact. With M. Poiret, he questions the accuracy of Pliny’s account of preparing the papyrus, and is of opinion that it refers more probably to the treatment of some other vegetable substance from which paper was made.

892 Primo supin tabulÆ schedÂ.

893 “Scapus.” This was, properly, the cylinder on which the paper was rolled.

894 Augustan.

895 Or “long glued” paper: the breadth probably consisted of that of two or more sheets glued or pasted at the edges, the seam running down the roll.

896 Scheda. One of the leaves of the papyrus, of which the roll of twenty, joined side by side, was formed.

897 This passage is difficult to be understood, and various attempts have been made to explain it. It is not unlikely that his meaning is that the breadth being doubled, the tearing of one leaf or half breadth entailed of necessity the spoiling of another, making the corresponding half breadth.

898 He perhaps means a portion of an elephant’s tusk.

899 Meaning a damp, musty smell.

900 See B. vii. c. 18, and B. xiv. c. 6. Also the Life of Pliny, in the Introduction to Vol. i. p. vii.

901 This story, no doubt, deserves to be rejected as totally fabulous, even though we have Hemina’s word for it.

902 See B. xvi. c. 70.

903 B. xii. c. 7, and B. xiii. c. 31. It was thought that the leaves and juices of the cedar and the citrus preserved books and linen from the attacks of noxious insects.

904 And because, as Livy says, their doctrines were inimical to the then existing religion.

905 Val. Maximus says that there were some books written in Latin, on the pontifical rights, and others in Greek on philosophical subjects.

906 HumanÆ Antiquitates.

907 See B. xxxiv. c. 11.

908 See B. xxxiii. c. 5.

909 He implies that it could not have been written upon paper, as the papyrus and the districts which produced it were not in existence in the time of Homer. No doubt this so-called letter, if shown at all, was a forgery, a “pia fraus.” See c. 21 of the present Book.

910 Il. B. vi. l. 168.

911 “Codicillos,” as meaning characters written on a surface of wood. p??a?, as Homer calls it.

912 It was probably then that the supply of it first began to fail; in the sixth century it was still used, but by the twelfth it had wholly fallen into disuse.

913 The cotton-tree, Gossypium arboreum of LinnÆus.

914 See B. xii. c. 21, 22.

915 In c. 9 of the present Book.

916 See B. vi. c. 36, 37.

917 Desfontaines observed in the vicinity of Atlas, several trees peculiar to that district. Among others of this nature, he names the Pistacia Atlantica, and the Thuya articulata.

918 See B. v. c. 1.

919 Generally supposed to be the Thuya articulata of Desfontaines, the Cedrus Atlantica of other botanists.

920 This rage for fine tables made of the citrus is alluded to, among others, by Martial and Petronius Arbiter. See also Lucan, A. ix. B. 426, et seq.

921 It is a rather curious fact that it is in Cicero’s works that we find the earliest mention made of citrus tables, 2nd Oration ag. Verres, s. 4:—“You deprived Q. Lutatius Diodorus of LilybÆum of a citrus table of remarkable age and beauty.”

922 Somewhere about £9000.

923 This is considered nothing remarkable at the present day, such is the skill displayed by our cabinet-makers.

924 Called “Nomiana.”

925 Tuber.

926 The European Cyprus, the Cupressus sempervirens of LinnÆus.

927 These veins were nothing in reality but the lines of the layers or strata lignea, running perpendicularly in the trunk, and the number of which denotes the age of the tree.

928 “TigrinÆ.”

929 “PantherinÆ.” The former tables were probably made of small pieces from the trunk, the latter from the sections of the tubers or knots.

930 “Crispis.”

931 Or “parsley-seed” tables. It has also been suggested that the word comes from “apis,” a bee; the wood presenting the appearance of being covered with swarms of bees.

932 “Mulsum.” This mixture will be found frequently mentioned in the next Book.

933 Lignum.

934 FÉe remarks that this is incorrect, and that this statement betrays an entire ignorance of the vegetable physiology.

935 T???, “wood of sacrifice.”

936 Od. B. v. l. 60. Pliny makes a mistake in saying “Circe;” it should be “Calypso.”

937 T???.

938 Crispius.

939 He alludes to the citron, the Citrus Medica of LinnÆus. See B. xii. c. 7.

940 The Rhamnus lotus of LinnÆus; the Zizyphus lotus of Desfontaines.

941 The Celtis australis of LinnÆus. FÉe remarks that Pliny is in error in giving the name of Celtis to the lotus of Africa.

942 The Lotophagi. See B. v. c. 7.

943 A kind of grain diet. See B. xviii. c. 29, and B. xxii. c. 61.

944 The Melilotus officinalis of LinnÆus.

945 The NymphÆa Nelumbo of LinnÆus, or Egyptian bean.

946 He speaks of the indentations on the surface of the poppy-head.

947 See B. xxii. c. 28.

948 FÉe remarks that there is nothing singular about it, the sun more or less exercising a similar influence on all plants.

950 Probably the Rhamnus paliurus of LinnÆus; the Spina Christi of other botanists.

951 The pomegranate, the Punica granatum of botanists.

952 Or “grained apple.”

953 From the Greek ?p??????, “without kernel.” This FÉe would not translate literally, but as meaning that by cultivation the grains had been reduced to a very diminutive size. See B. xxiii. c. 57.

954 This variety appears to be extinct. FÉe doubts if it ever existed.

955 See B. xxiii. c. 57.

956 See B. xxiii. c. 60.

957 “Puniceus,” namely, a kind of purple.

958 See B. xxvii. c. 52. Sprengel thinks that this is the Neottia spiralis of Schwartz; but FÉe is of opinion that it has not hitherto been identified.

959 Probably the Erica arborea of LinnÆus, or “heath” in its several varieties.

960 Granum Cnidium. The shrub is the Daphne Cnidium of LinnÆus.

961 The “thyme-olive.”

962 The “ground olive,” or “small olive.” Dioscorides makes a distinction between these two last; and Sprengel has followed it, naming the last Daphne Cnidium, and the first Daphne Cneorum.

963 See B. xxvii. c. 115.

964 He says elsewhere that it is like the juniper, which, however, is not the case. Guettard thinks that the tragion is the AndrosÆmon fetidum, the Hyperium hircinum of the modern botanists. Sprengel also adopts the same opinion. FÉe is inclined to think that it was a variety of the Pistacia lentiscus.

965 Goat’s thorn. The Astragalus Creticus of LinnÆus.

966 He speaks of gum tragacanth.

967 See B. xxvii. c. 116. Sprengel identifies it with the Salsola tragus of LinnÆus.

968 Probably the Tamarix Gallica of LinnÆus. FÉe says, in relation to the myrica, that it would seem that the ancients united in one collective name, several plants which resembled each other, not in their botanical characteristics, but in outward appearance. To this, he says, is owing the fact that Dioscorides calls the myrica a tree, Favorinus a herb; Dioscorides says that it is fruitful, Nicander and Pliny call it barren; Virgil calls it small, and Theophrastus says that it is large.

969 FÉe thinks that it is the Tamarix orientalis of Delille.

970 “Infelix,” meaning “sterile.” He seems to say this more particularly in reference to the brya, which Egypt produces. As to this use of the word “infelix,” see B. xvi. c. 46.

971 Sprengel and FÉe identify this with the Ostrya vulgaris of Willdenow, the Carpinus ostrya of LinnÆus.

972 Or the “luckily named.” It grew on Mount Ordymnus in Lesbos. See Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 31.

973 The Evonymus EuropÆus, or else the Evonymus latifolius of botanists, is probably intended to be indicated; but it is a mistake to say that it is poisonous to animals. On the contrary, FÉe says that sheep will fatten on its leaves very speedily.

974 “Statim pestem denuntians.” Pliny appears to be in error here. In copying from Theophrastus, he seems to have found the word f???? used, really in reference to a blood-red juice which distils from the plant; but as the same word also means slaughter, or death, he seems to have thought that it really bears reference to the noxious qualities of the plant.

975 FÉe censures the use of the word “siliqua,” as inappropriate, although the seed does resemble that of sesamum, the Sesamum orientale of LinnÆus.

976 Or eonis. FÉe suggests that in this story, which probably belongs to the region of Fable, some kind of oak may possibly be alluded to.

977 In the former editions, “adrachne”—the Arbutus integrifolia, FÉe says, and not the Arbutus andrachne of LinnÆus, as Sprengel thinks.

978 “Porcillaca.” The Portulaca oleracea of LinnÆus.

979 The Rhus cotinus of LinnÆus, a sort of sumach.

980 This is not the fact; the seeds when ripe are merely lost to view in the large tufts of down which grow on the stems.

981 Generally supposed to be the same as the alaternus, mentioned in B. xvi. c. 45. Some writers identify it with the Phyllirea angustifolia of LinnÆus.

982 Probably the Ferula communis of LinnÆus, the herb or shrub known as “fennel giant.”

983 The Ferula glauca of LinnÆus.

984 The Ferula nodiflora of LinnÆus.

985 It is still used for that purpose in the south of Europe. The Roman schoolmasters, as we learn from Juvenal, Martial, and others, employed it for the chastisement of their scholars. Pliny is in error in reckoning it among the trees, it really having no pretensions to be considered such. It is said to have received its name from “ferio,” to “beat.”

986 Sprengel thinks that this is the Thapsia asclepium of the moderns; but FÉe takes it to be the Thapsia villosa of LinnÆus.

987 It was valued, Dioscorides says, for its cathartic properties.

988 Either the Thapsia garganica of Willdenow, or the Thapsia villosa, found in Africa and the south of Europe, though, as Pliny says, the thapsia of Europe is mild in its effects compared with that of Africa. It is common on the coast of Barbary.

989 Pastillos.

990 Nocturnis grassationibus.

991 It is still used in Barbary for the cure of tetter and ringworm.

992 The story was, that Prometheus, when he stole the heavenly fire from Jupiter, concealed it in a stalk of narthex.

993 The “caper-tree,” the Capparis spinosa of LinnÆus. FÉe suggests that Pliny may possibly allude, in some of the features which he describes, to kinds less known; such, for instance, as the Capparis inermis of Forskhal, found in Arabia; the Capparis ovata of Desfontaines, found in Barbary; the Capparis Sinaica, found on Mount Sinai, and remarkable for the size of its fruit; and the Capparis Ægyptiaca of Lamarck, commonly found in Egypt.

994 The stalk and seed were salted or pickled. The buds or unexpanded flowers of this shrub are admired as a pickle or sauce of delicate flavour.

995 FÉe remarks that this is not the truth, all the kinds possessing the same qualities. There may, however, have been some difference in the mode of salting or pickling them, and possibly productive of noxious effects.

996 Probably from its thorns, that being the name of the sweet-briar, or dog-rose.

997 “Serpent grapes.”

998 Sprengel and FÉe take this to be the Cyperus fastigiatus of LinnÆus, which Forskhal found in the river Nile.

999 Spina regia. Some writers have considered this to be the same with the Centaurea solstitialis of LinnÆus. Sprengel takes it to be the Cassyta filiformis of LinnÆus, a parasitical plant of India. We must conclude, however, with FÉe, that both the thorn and the parasite have not hitherto been identified.

1000 The Makron Teichos. See B. iv. c. 11.

1001 From the various statements of ancient authors, FÉe has come to the conclusion that this name was given to two totally different productions. The cytisus which the poets speak of as grateful to bees and goats, and sheep, he takes to be the Medicago arborea of LinnÆus, known to us as Medic trefoil, or lucerne; while the other, a tree with a black wood, he considers identical with the Cytisus laburnum of LinnÆus, the laburnum, or false ebony tree.

1002 A kind of vetch or tare. See B. xviii.

1003 “Frutex.” When speaking of it as a shrub, he seems to be confounding the tree with the plant.

1004 Evidently in allusion to the tree.

1005 He alludes to various kinds of fucus or sea-weed, which grows to a much larger size in the Eastern seas.

1006 The Mediterranean.

1007 Whence the word “fucus” of the naturalists.

1008 FÉe suggests that this may be the Laminaria saccharina of LinnÆus, being one of the “ulvÆ” often thrown up on the coasts of Europe.

1009 The “green” plant.

1010 The “girdle” plant.

1011 The Fucus barbatus, probably, of LinnÆus, or else the Fucus eroÏdes.

1012 They are in reality more long-lived than this.

1013 FÉe suggests that it is the Roccella tinctoria of LinnÆus.

1014 The Zostera marina of LinnÆus, according to FÉe.

1015 The Ulva lactuca of the moderns, a very common sea-weed.

1016 The Fucus ericoÏdes, FÉe suggests, not unlike a fir in appearance.

1017 Quercus. According to Gmellin, this is the Fucus vesiculosus of LinnÆus. Its leaves are indented, somewhat similarly to those of the oak.

1018 Polybius, as quoted by AthenÆus, says that in the Lusitanian Sea there are oaks that bear acorns, on which the thunnies feed and grow fat.

1019 On the contrary, Theophrastus says, B. iv. c. 7, that the sea-vine grows near the sea, from which FÉe is disposed to consider it a phanerogamous plant. If, on the other hand, it is really a fucus, he thinks that the Fucus uvarius may be meant, the vesicles of which resemble a grape in shape.

1020 He speaks of a madrepore, FÉe thinks, the identity of which it is difficult to determine. Professor Pallas speaks of an Alcyonidium ficus, which lives in the Mediterranean and in the ocean, and which resembles a fig, and has no leaves, but its exterior is not red.

1021 FÉe queries whether this may not be the Gorgonia palma of LinnÆus, which has received its name from its resemblance to a small palm-tree.

1022 These three, FÉe thinks, are madrepores or zoophytes, which it would be vain to attempt to identify.

1023 That is, they dry up to the consistency of pumice.

1024 “Sitiens.” Delille considers this as identical with his Acacia seyal, a thorny tree, often to be seen in the deserts of Africa.

1025 Probably zoophytes now unknown.

1026 FÉe suggests that he may allude to the Madrepora fungites of LinnÆus, the Fungus lapideus of Bauhin. These are found in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean; but, of course, the story of their appearance during rain is fabulous.

1027 Sharks; see B. ix. c. 70.

1028 The companions of Onesicritus and Nearchus.

1029 FÉe hazards a conjecture that this may be the Gorgonia scirpea of Pallas, found in the Indian Seas.

1030 One of the GorgoniÆ, FÉe thinks; but its characteristics are not sufficiently stated to enable us to identify it.

1031 A fable worthy of Sinbad the Sailor!

1032 “Isidis crinem.” FÉe says that this is evidently black coral, the Gorgonia antipathes of LinnÆus.

1033 “The eyelid of the Graces.” FÉe is almost tempted to think that he means red coral.

1034 Amatoriis.

1035 Spatalia. Armlets or bracelets.

1036 By this apparently fabulous story, one would be almost inclined to think that he is speaking of a zoophyte.

1037 See end of B. ii.

1038 See end of B. ii.

1039 See end of B vii.

1040 Papirius Fabianus. See end of B. ii.

1041 See end of B. ii.

1042 See end of B. iii.

1043 Fabius Pictor. See end of B. x.

1044 See end of B. viii.

1045 See end of B. iii.

1046 Trogus Pompeius. See end of B. vii.

1047 See end of B. v.

1048 See end of B. ii.

1049 See end of B. xii.

1050 See end of B. xii.

1051 See end of B. ii.

1052 See end of B. xii.

1053 See end of B. ii.

1054 See end of B. iii.

1055 See end of B. ii.

1056 See end of B. xii.

1057 See end of B. vii.

1058 See end of B. vi.

1059 See end of B. xii.

1060 See end of B. vii.

1061 See end of B. vi.

1062 See end of B. ii.

1063 See end of B. xii.

1064 See end of B. xii.

1065 See end of B. vi.

1066 See end of B. iv.

1067 See end of B. iv.

1068 See end of B. xii.

1069 See end of B. iv.

1070 See end of B. viii.

1071 See end of B. xii.

1072 See end of B. xii.

1073 See end of B. xii.

1074 See end of B. viii.

1075 Nothing certain is known of him; but he appears to be the geographer, a native of Lampsacus, mentioned by Strabo in B. xiii.

1076 See end of B. xii.

1077 See end of B. xii.

1078 See end of B. xii.

1079 See end of B. ii.

1080 See end of B. viii.

1081 See end of B. iii.

1082 A writer on Agriculture, or domestic economy; but nothing further is known of him.

1083 See end of B. v.

1084 Perhaps the same writer that is mentioned at the end of B. xi.

1085 For two physicians of this name, see end of B. xii.

1086 One of his prescriptions is preserved in the works of Galen. Nothing else is known of him.

1087 See end of B. xii.

1088 See end of B. xii.

1089 See end of B. xii.

1090 See end of B. xii.

1091 See end of B. xii.

1092 See end of B. xii.

1094 See end of B. xii.

1095 See end of B. xii.

1096 This must be understood with considerable modification—many of the tropical trees and plants have been naturalized, and those of America more particularly, in Europe.

1097 He is probably wrong in looking upon the vine as indigenous to Italy. It was known in very early times in Egypt and Greece, and it is now generally considered that it is indigenous throughout the tract that stretches to the south, from the mountains of Mazandiran on the Caspian to the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Sea, and eastward through Khorassan and Cabul to the base of the Himalayas.

1098 The art of printing, FÉe remarks, utterly precludes the recurrence of such a fact as this.

1099 In allusion to his poem, the “Works and Days,” the prototype of Virgil’s Georgics.

1100 He alludes to the legacy-hunters with which Rome abounded in his time. They are spoken of by Seneca, Tacitus, and Juvenal, in terms of severe reprobation.

1101 This seems to be the meaning of “captatio;” much like what we call “toadying,” or “toad-eating.”

1102 The “liberales artes,” were those, the pursuit of which was not considered derogatory to the dignity of a free man.

1103 Vita ipsa desiit.

1104 Humilitas.

1105 In the Georgics.

1106 Theophrastus reckons it among the trees; Columella, B. ii., considers it to occupy a middle position between a tree and a shrub. Horace, B. i. Ode 18, calls it a tree, “arbor.”

1107 Or “layers,” “propagines.”

1108 Nubunt, properly “marry.” This is still done in Naples, and other parts of Italy. The use of vine stays there are unknown.

1109 “Mustum.” Pure, unfermented juice of the grape.

1110 See B. vii. c. 24.

1111 Italia Transpadana.

1112 See B. xxiv. c. 112. The Bauhins are of opinion that this is the Acer opulus of Willdenow, common in Italy, and very branchy.

1113 “Tabulata in orbem patula.” He probably alludes to the branches extending horizontally from the trunk.

1114 “In palmam ejus.”

1115 There is no doubt that the whole of this passage is in a most corrupt state, and we can only guess at its meaning. Sillig suggests a new reading, which, unsupported as it is by any of the MSS., can only be regarded as fanciful, and perhaps as a very slight improvement on the attempts to obtain a solution of the difficulty. Pliny’s main object seems to be to contrast the vines that entwine round poles and rise perpendicularly with those that creep horizontally.

1116 By throwing out fresh shoots every here and there. FÉe, however, seems to think that he means that the grapes themselves, as they trail along the ground, suck up the juices with their pores. These are known in France as “running vines,” and are found in Berry and Anjou.

1117 He must evidently be speaking of the size of the bunches. See the account of the grapes of Canaan, in Numbers xiii. 24.

1118 “Durus acinus,” or, according to some readings, “duracinus.”

1119 From the Greek ??ast??, a cow’s teat, mentioned by Virgil, Georg. ii. 102.

1120 Or finger-grape.

1121 From the Greek ?ept????e?, “small-berried.”

1122 Pensili concamaratÆ nodo.

1123 We have no corresponding word for the Latin “dolium.” It was an oblong earthen vessel, used for much the same purpose as our vats; new wine was generally placed in it. In times later than that of Pliny the dolia were made of wood.

1124 Hardouin speaks of these grapes as still growing in his time in the Valtelline, and remarkable for their excellence.

1125 “A patientia.” Because they have suffered from the action of the heat.

1126 From the thinness of the skin.

1127 See c. 24, also B. xxiii. c. 24.

1128 See B. iii. c. 5, and B. xxxiii. c. 24.

1129 He died in the year B.C. 19.

1130 A vine sapling was the chief mark of the centurion’s authority.

1131 The reading “elatas,” has been adopted. If “lentas” is retained, it may mean, “promotion, slow though it be,” for the word “aquila” was often used to denote the rank of the “primipilus,” who had the charge of the eagle of the legion.

1132 Because it was the privilege solely of those soldiers who were Roman citizens to be beaten with the vine sapling.

1133 He alludes to the “vinea” used in besieging towns; the first notion of which was derived from the leafy roof afforded by the vines when creeping on the trellis over-head. It was a moveable machine, affording a roof under which the besiegers protected themselves against darts, stones, fire, and other missiles. Raw hides or wet cloths constituted the uppermost layer.

1134 See B. xxiii. c. 19.

1135 Many years ago, there were in the gardens of the Luxembourg one thousand four hundred varieties of the French grape, and even then there were many not to be found there; while, at the same time, it was considered that the French kinds did not form more than one-twentieth part of the species known in Europe.

1136 This vine was said to be of Grecian origin, and to have been conveyed by a Thessalian tribe to Italy, where it was grown at Aminea, a village in the Falernian district of Campania. It is supposed to have been the same as the gros plant of the French. The varieties mentioned by Pliny seem not to have been recognized by the moderns.

1137 FÉe does not give credit to this statement.

1138 In allusion to the cotton-tree, or else the mulberry leaves covered with the cocoons of the silkworm. See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xii. c. 21. Virgil, in the Georgics, has the well-known line:

1139 See B. iii. c. 9, There are many vines, the wood of which is red, but this species has not been identified.

1140 From “apis,” a “bee.” He alludes, it is thought, to the muscatel grape, said to have had its name from “musca,” a “fly;” an insect which is greatly attracted by its sweetness.

1141 GrÆcula.

1142 FÉe is inclined to think that he alludes to the vine of Corinth, the dried fruit of which are the currants of commerce.

1143 From the Greek e????e?a.

1144 How Taormina, in Sicily, where, FÉe says, it is still to be found. The grapes are red, similar to those of Mascoli near Etna, and much esteemed.

1145 Picata. See p. 221.

1146 I.e., pale straw colour.

1147 It has been supposed that this vine received its name from “fÆx;” the wine depositing an unusually large quantity of lees.

1148 It is doubtful whether this vine had its name from being grown in the district now called Bourges, or that of Bourdeaux. Dalechamps identifies it with the plant d’Orleans.

1149 The origin of its name is unknown. The text is evidently defective.

1150 By this name it would be understood that they were of an intermediate colour between rose and white, a not uncommon colour in the grape. Pliny, however, says otherwise, and he is supported by Columella.

1151 C. Bauhin took this to mean one of the garden currant trees, the Ribes uva crispa of LinnÆus, called by Bauhin Grossularia simplici acino, or else Spinosa agrestis. But, as FÉe observes, the ancients were not so ignorant as to confound a vine with a currant-bush.

1152 Like the Portuguese grapes of the present day.

1153 Crisped and indented.

1154 This variety, according to Christian de la Vega, was cultivated abundantly in Grenada. The word cocolab, according to some, meant cock’s comb. It is mentioned as a Spanish word by Columella.

1155 Dalechamps says, that a similar wine was made at Montpellier, and that it was called “piquardant.”

1156 See B. xxiii. cc. 20, 21.

1157 Probably from “albus,” “white.” Poinsinet thinks that it may have been so called from the Celtic word alb, or alp, a mountain, and that it grew on elevated spots. This, however, is probably fanciful.

1158 Called by the Greeks ????st??, from its comparatively harmless qualities.

1159 Or “sober” vine.

1160 Hardouin says that in his time it was still cultivated about Macerata, in the Roman States. FÉe thinks that it may be one of the climbing vines, supported by forks, cultivated in the central provinces of France. See also B. xxiii. c. 19, as to the effects produced by its wine.

1161 Poinsinet gives a Celto-Scythian origin to this word, and says that it means “injured by fogs.” This appears to be supported in some measure by what is stated below.

1162 See B. xvii. c. 37.

1163 Or “thorny” vine. FÉe queries why it should be thus called.

1164 This humid, marshy locality was noted for the badness of its grapes, and consequently of its wine.

1165 Hardouin thinks that this is the “Marze mina” of the Venetians: whence, perhaps, its ancient name.

1166 “Testis.” See B. xxxv. c. 46.

1167 From Murgentum, in Sicily. See B. iii. c. 14.

1168 From Pompeii, afterwards destroyed. See B. iii c. 9.

1169 Hardouin, as FÉe thinks, without good reason, identifies this with the “Arelaca” of Columella.

1170 Georgics, ii. 99.

1171 This seems to be the meaning of “ultro solum lÆtius facit.” These two lines have been introduced by Sillig, from one of the MSS., for the first time.

1172 Hardouin thinks that it is so called from Tuder, a town of Etruria. See B. iii. c. 19.

1173 Sillig suggests that the reading here is corrupt, and that Pliny means to say that the vine called Florentia is particularly excellent, and merely to state that the talpona, &c., are peculiar to Arretium: for, as he says, speaking directly afterwards in disparagement of them, it is not likely he would pronounce them “opima,” of “first-rate quality.”

1174 From “talpa,” a “mole,” in consequence of its black colour.

1175 “Album.”

1176 Probably so called from the Etesian winds, which improved its growth.

1177 Perhaps meaning “double-seeded.” We may here remark, that the wines of Tuscany, though held in little esteem in ancient times, are highly esteemed at the present day.

1178 The leaves of most varieties turn red just before the fall.

1179 And Baccius thinks that this is the kind from which the raisins of the sun, common in Italy, and more particularly in the Valley of Bevagna, the Mevania of Pliny, are made.

1180 Perhaps from “pumilio,” a dwarf.

1181 The “royal” vine, according to Poinsinet, who would derive it from the Sclavonic “ban.”

1182 Previously mentioned, p. 228.

1183 The residence of Horace, now Tivoli.

1184 Baccius says that the wine of this grape was thin like water, and that the vine was trained on lofty trees, a mode of cultivation still followed in the vicinity of Rome. Laurentum was situate within a short distance of it, near Ostia.

1185 See B. iii. c. 9.

1186 So called from the smoky or intermediate colour of its grapes. FÉe suggests that this may be the slow-ripening grape of France, called the “verjus,” or “rognon de coq.”

1187 Possibly meaning the “mouthful.”

1188 Perhaps so called from Prusa in Bithynia, a district which bore excellent grapes.

1189 Or the “turning” grape. A fabulous story no doubt, originating in the name, probably. FÉe suggests that it may have originated in the not uncommon practice of letting the bunches hang after they were ripe, and then twisting them, which was thought to increase the juice.

1190 In the modern Marches of Ancona.

1191 Georgics, ii. 91, et seq.

1192 A muscatel, FÉe thinks.

1193 Or “hard-berried.” FÉe thinks that the maroquin, or Morocco grape, called the “pied de poule” (or fowl’s foot), at Montpellier, may be the duracinus.

1194 Or “upright vine.” In Anjou and Herault the vines are of similar character.

1195 The “finger-like” vine.

1196 The “pigeon” vine.

1197 Though very fruitful, it does not bear in large clusters (racemi), but only in small bunches (uvÆ).

1198 The “three-foot” vine.

1199 Perhaps meaning the “rush” grape, from its shrivelled appearance.

1200 See c. 3 of this Book.

1201 The ordinary number of pips or stones is five. It is seldom that we find but one. Virgil mentions this grape, Georg. ii. 95.

1202 “Chium.” This reading is doubtful. FÉe says that between Narni and Terni, eight leagues from Spoleto, a small grape is found, without stones. It is called “uva passa,” or “passerina.” So, too, the Sultana raisin of commerce.

1203 “Grown for the table.”

1204 Or “hard-berry.”

1205 Mentioned by Virgil, Georg. ii. 101.

1206 Or pitch-grape.

1207 Perhaps the “noirant,” or “teinturier” of the French.

1208 Or “garland-clustered” vine.

1209 FÉe says that this is sometimes accidentally the case, but is not the characteristic of any variety now known.

1210 Or “market-grapes.”

1211 The “ash-coloured.”

1212 The “russet-coloured.”

1213 Probably so called from its grey colour, like that of the ass.

1214 Or “fox” vine. This variety is unknown.

1215 So called from Alexandria, in Troas, not in Egypt. Phalacra was in the vicinity of Mount Ida.

1216 As the leaves of the vine are universally divided, it has been considered by many of the commentators that this is not in reality a vine, but the Arbutus uva ursi of LinnÆus. The fruit, however, of that ericaceous plant is remarkably acrid, and not sweet, as Pliny states. FÉe rejects this solution.

1217 Aubenas, in the Vivarais, according to Hardouin; Alps, according to Brotier. We must reject this assertion as fabulous.

1218 In B.C. 194, for his successes in Spain.

1219 Mode of culture, locality, climate, and other extraneous circumstances, work, no doubt, an entire change in the nature of the vine.

1220 Probably the first of the five that he has mentioned in c. 4.

1221 He has only mentioned one sort in c. 4.

1222 See c. 4.

1223 See c. 4.

1224 We have no corresponding word for this beverage in the English language—a thin, poor liquor, made by pouring water on the husks and stalks after being fully pressed, allowing them to soak, pressing them again, and then fermenting the liquor. It was also called “vinum operarium,” or “labourer’s wine.” As stated in the present instance, grapes were sometimes stored in it for keeping.

1225 A variety of the Aminean, as stated below.

1226 See B. iii. c. 9.

1227 The elder Africanus. He retired in voluntary exile to his country-seat at Liternum, where he died.

1228 Mercis.

1230 The philosopher, and tutor of Nero.

1231 Said to have been so called from Maron, a king of Thrace, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Thracian Ismarus. See B. iv. c. 18. Homer mentions this wine in the Odyssey, B. ix. c. 197, et seq. It was red, honey-sweet, fragrant. The place is still called Marogna, in Roumelia, a country the wines of which are still much esteemed.

1232 See B. vii. c. 57.

1233 Thus making “mulsum.”

1234 B. ix. c. 208.

1235 Indomitus.

1236 By “black” wines he means those that had the same colour as our port.

1237 Il. xi. 638. Od. x. 234.

1238 Cybele. A wine called “Pramnian” was also grown in the island of Icaria, in Lesbos, and in the territory of Ephesus. The scholiast on Nicander says that the grape of the psythia was used in making it. Dioscorides says that it was a “protropum,” first-class wine, made of the juice that voluntarily flowed from the grapes, in consequence of their own pressure.

1239 B.C. 121.

1240 “Cooking,” literally, or “boiling.”

1241 The wines of Burgundy, in particular, become bitter when extremely old.

1242 See B. vii. c. 18.

1243 Caligula.

1244 By some remarkable and peculiar quality, such as in the Opimian wine.

1245 “Testa,” meaning the amphora.

1246 See c. 3 of the present Book, where these “picata,” or “pitched-wines,” have been further described.

1247 On the contrary, FÉe says, the coldest wines are those that contain the least alcohol, whereas those of Vienne (in modern DauphinÉ) contain more than the majority of wines.

1248 He implies that wine is an antidote to the poisonous effects of hemlock. This is not the case, but it is said by some that vinegar is. It is the plant hemlock (cicuta) that is meant, and not the fatal draught that was drunk by Socrates and Philopoemen. See further in B. xxiii. c. 23, and B. xxv. c. 95.

1249 Clitus and Callisthenes.

1250 Lacus.

1251 The testa or amphora, made of earth.

1252 As the wife of Augustus is meant, this reading appears preferable to “Julia.”

1253 Dion Cassius says “eighty-sixth.”

1254 See B. iii. c. 22, and B. xvii. c. 3. Pucinum was in Istria, and the district is said still to produce good wine; according to Dalechamps, the place is called Pizzino d’Istria.

1255 The hills of Setia, looking down on the Pomptine Marshes: now Sezza, the wine of which is of no repute.

1256 See B. iii. c. 9.

1257 See B. iii. c. 9. Between Fundi and Setia; a locality now of no repute for its wines. In B. xxiii. c. 19, Pliny says, that the CÆcuban vine was extinct: but in B. xvii. c. 3, he says that in the Pomptine Marshes it was to be found.

1258 This was the case, it has been remarked, with Madeira some years ago.

1259 This is the most celebrated of all the ancient wines, as being more especially the theme of the poets.

1260 See B. xi. c. 97. The wines of the Falernian district are no longer held in any esteem; indeed, all the Campanian wines are sour, and of a disagreeable flavour.

1261 It appears to have been exceedingly rich in alcohol.

1262 But in B. xxiii. c. 20, he assigns the first rank to the Albanum; possibly, however, as a medicinal wine. The wines of Latium are no longer held in esteem.

1263 See B. xxiii. c. 21.

1264 From Surrentum, the promontory forming the southern horn of the Bay of Naples. Ovid and Martial speak in praise of these wines; they were destitute of richness and very dry, in consequence of which they required twenty-five years to ripen.

1265 Or “dead vinegar.” “Vappa” was vinegar exposed to the air, and so destitute of its properties, and quite insipid.

1266 Excellent wines are still produced in the vicinity of this place. Massicum was one of the perfumed wines. Gaurus itself produced the “Gauranum,” in small quantity, but of high quality, full-bodied and thick.

1267 For the Calenian Hills, see B. iii. c. 9; see also B. xxiii. c. 12, for some further account of the wines of Stata. The wines of that district are now held in no esteem.

1268 From Fundi. See B. iii. c. 9.

1269 Now Castel del Volturno: although covered with vineyards, its wines are of no account. This wine always tasted as if mixed with some foreign substance.

1270 Now Piperno. It was a thin and pleasant wine.

1271 Now Segni, in the States of the Church.

1272 Written to the Senate, also to Cicero. We learn from Suetonius that they were partly written in cipher.

1273 Messina, at the present day, exports wines of very good quality, and which attain a great age.

1274 It was sound, light, and not without body.

1275 “LagenÆ.” The same spot, now Taormina in Sicily, between Catania and Messina, still produces excellent wines.

1276 See B. iii. c. 18. FÉe says that this is thought to have been the wine of Syrol, of last century, grown near Ancona.

1277 “Palma.” Notwithstanding this suggestion, it is more generally supposed that they had their name from the place called Palma, near Marano, on the Adriatic. Its wines are still considered of agreeable flavour.

1278 The wines of modern Cezena enjoy no repute, owing, probably, to the mode of making them.

1279 Probably so called because it was brought into fashion by MÆcenas.

1280 See Georg. ii. 95. The wines of the Tyrol, the ancient RhÆtia, are still considered as of excellent quality.

1281 Of Adria, or the Adriatic Sea.

1282 See B. iii. c. 20. These wines are of little repute.

1283 In Latium. See B. iii. c. 9.

1284 From GraviscÆ. See B. iii. c. 8.

1285 See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxxvi. c. 49.

1286 The wines of Genoa are of middling quality only, and but little known.

1287 Or “juicy” wine.

1288 Now Beziers, in the south of France. The wines of this part are considered excellent at the present day. That of Frontignan grows in its vicinity. FÉe is inclined to think, from Pliny’s remarks here, that the ancients and the moderns differed entirely in their notions as to what constitutes good or bad wine.

1289 He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc: districts famous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter.

1290 FÉe deems all this quite incredible. Our English experience, however, tells us that it is by no means so; much of the wine that is drunk in this country is indebted for flavour as well as colour to anything but the grape.

1291 The wines of modern Otranto are ordinarily of good quality.

1292 Baccius reads “Seberiniana,” but is probably wrong. If he is not, it might allude to the place now known as San Severino, and which produces excellent wine. FÉe thinks that these wines were grown in the territory of Salerno, which still enjoys celebrity for its muscatel wines.

1293 See B. iii. c. 10. The wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high reputation.

1294 M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan of Augustus. See end of B. ix.

1295 A place supposed to have been situated near Thurii.

1296 See B. iii. c. 15.

1297 Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant. The wines of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem.

1298 Galen says that it was very similar to the Falernian.

1299 See B. iii. c. 9.

1300 The Trifoline territory was in the vicinity of CumÆ. It is possible that the wine may have had its name from taking three years to come to maturity; or possibly it was owing to some peculiarity in the vine.

1301 They have been already mentioned in c. 4. See B. iii. c. 9.

1302 Twelve o’clock in the day.

1303 See B. iii. c. 4.

1304 In Catalonia, which still produces abundance of wine, but in general of inferior repute.

1305 The wines of Tarragona are still considered good.

1306 A place in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, destroyed by Sertorius.

1307 They still enjoy a high repute. The fame of their Malvoisie has extended all over the world.

1308 He means to illustrate the capricious tastes that existed as to the merits of wines.

1309 In c. 6 of this Book.

1310 The Chian held the first rank, the Thasian the second.

1311 From Arvisium, or Ariusium, a hilly district in the centre of the island. The wine of Chios still retains its ancient celebrity.

1312 It was remarkable for its sweetness, and aromatics were sometimes mixed with it. Homer calls it harmless. Lesbos still produces choice wines.

1313 Near Smyrna. Probably similar to the Pramnian wine, mentioned in c. 6.

1314 See B. v. c. 30. This wine is mentioned again in the next page; it is generally thought, that he is wrong in making the Tmolites and the Mesogites distinct wines, for they are supposed to have been identical.

1315 If drunk by itself, and not as a flavouring for other wines.

1316 Bacchus had a temple there.

1317 The wines of Cyprus are the most choice of all the Grecian wines at the present day.

1318 In Lycia.

1319 In Syria. Wine is no longer made there, but the grapes are excellent, and are dried for raisins.

1320 Now Beyrout. It does not seem that wine is made there now. The Mahometan religion may have tended to the extinction of many of these wines.

1321 At the village of Sour, on the site of ancient Tyre, the grape is only cultivated for raisins.

1322 See also c. 22: probably introduced from Thasos.

1323 The “smoky” grape.

1324 The “pitchy” grape.

1325 A strong wine, Hardouin thinks, from whence its name—“strong enough to subdue a horse.”

1326 From the small island of Mystus, near Cephallenia.

1327 So called from the vine the name of which was “canthareus.”

1328 Made, as already stated, from the juice that flowed spontaneously from the grapes. See also p. 250.

1329 Or the “burnt up” country, a volcanic district of Mysia, which still retains its ancient fame for its wine. Virgil alludes to this wine in Georg. iv. l. 380:—

1330 Perhaps from Petra in Arabia: though FÉe suggests Petra in the Balearic Islands.

1331 See B. iv. c. 22. In the island of Myconos in the Archipelago an excellent wine is still grown.

1332 From Mount Mesogis, which divides the tributaries of the Caÿster from those of the Meander. It is generally considered the same as the Tmolites.

1333 Must or grape-juice boiled down to one half.

1334 See B. v. c. 29.

1335 “Mulsum,” or honied wine, was of two kinds; honey mixed with wine, and honey mixed with must or grape-juice.

1336 From its Greek name, it would seem to mean “of first quality.”

1337 So called from a place in Euboea, the modern Negropont. See. B. iv. c. 20. Negropont produces good wines at the present day.

1338 The locality is unknown.

1339 From Leucadia, or Leucate; see B. iv. c. 2; the vine was very abundant there.

1340 From Ambracia. See B. iv. c. 2.

1341 From the island of Peparethus. See B. iv. c. 23, where he says that from its abundance of vines it was called e??????, or “Evenus.”

1342 B. xxiii. c. 1, and c. 26.

1343 “Cadis.”

1344 FÉe remarks that this method is still adopted in making several of the liqueurs.

1345 White wine of Cos. FÉe thinks that Pliny means to say that the sea water turns the must of a white or pale straw colour, and is of opinion that he has been wrongly informed.

1346 “Sea-water” wine.

1347 “Sea-seasoned” wine.

1348 FÉe says, that if the vessels were closed hermetically this would have little or no appreciable effect; if not, it would tend to spoil the wine.

1349 AthenÆus says that the Rhodian wine will not mix so well with sea-water as the Coan. FÉe remarks that if Cato’s plan were followed, the wine would become vinegar long before the end of the four years.

1350 Sillig thinks that the proper reading is “in six” only.

1351 The sweet wines, in modern times, have the most bouquet or aroma.

1352 “Albus,” pale straw-colour.

1353 “Fulvus,” amber-colour.

1354 Bright and glowing, like Tent and Burgundy.

1355 “Niger,” the colour of our port.

1356 Supposed to be a species of Pramnian wine, mentioned in c. 6. This was used, as also the Aminean, for making omphacium, as mentioned in B. xii. c. 60. See also c. 18 of this Book.

1357 “Black psythian.”

1358 Mentioned by Galen among the sweet wines.

1359 See B. iii. c. 14. Now Solana in Sicily, which produces excellent wine.

1360 Honied wine.

1361 This was evidently a kind of grape sirop, or grape jelly. “Rob” is perhaps, as Hardouin suggests, a not inappropriate name for it.

1362 When cold, they would have nearly the same consistency.

1363 The raisin wine of Crete was the most prized of all as a class.

1364 Mentioned in c. 4. Probably a muscatel grape.

1365 See c. 4 of this Book.

1366 Or “vat.” The common reading was “oleo,” which would imply that they were plunged into boiling oil. Columella favours the latter reading, B. xii. c. 16.

1367 The reading is probably defective here.

1368 Passum secundarium.

1369 Or “always sweet.”

1370 “Always must.”

1372 “Sweet” drink. FÉe seems to think that this sweet wine must have been something similar to champagne. Hardouin says that it corresponds to the vin doux de Limoux, or blanquette de Limoux, and the vin Muscat d’Azile.

1373 See c. 3 of this Book.

1374 “Poured,” or “strained through.”

1375 “Honey wine.” A disagreeable medicament, FÉe thinks, rather than a wine.

1376 Somewhat similar to the vin de premiere goutte of the French. It would seem to have been more of a liqueur than a wine. Tokay is made in a somewhat similar manner.

1377 Or “second” press wines.

1378 De Re Rust. c. 153.

1379 Vinum operarium.

1380 This method is still adopted, FÉe says, in making “piquette,” or “small wine,” throughout most of the countries of Europe.

1381 Or “wine-lee drink.” It would make an acid beverage, of disagreeable taste.

1382 “Nobilia.” In c. 29 he speaks of 195 kinds, and, reckoning all the varieties, double that number.

1383 FÉe observes that the varieties of the modern wines are quite innumerable. He remarks also that Pliny does not speak of the Asiatic wines mentioned by AthenÆus, which were kept in large bottles, hung in the chimney corner; where the liquid, by evaporation, acquired the consistency of salt. The wines of other countries evidently were little known to Pliny.

1384 “Circa pericula arbusti.” This is probably the meaning of this very elliptical passage. See p. 218.

1385 Called Metellus, by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 3.

1386 See B. xvii. c. 11.

1387 Over the Celtiberi.

1388 The younger Pliny, B. ii. Ep. 2, censures this stingy practice. See also Martial, B. iii. Epig. 60.

1389 That this, however, was not uncommonly done, we may judge from the remark made by the governor of the feast, John ii. 10, to the bridegroom.

1390 Called “myrrhina.” FÉe remarks that the flavour of myrrh is acrid and bitter, its odour strong and disagreeable, and says that it is difficult to conceive how the ancients could drink wine with this substance in solution.

1391 As the “Persa” has come down to us, we find no mention of myrrh in the passage alluded to.

1392 See B. xii. c. 49. This is mentioned in the Persa, A. i. sc. 3, l. 7.

1393 Aromatic or perfumed wines.

1394 Murrhinam.

1395 The Cheat or Impostor: a play of Plautus. See A. ii. sc. 4, l. 51, et seq.

1396 Must boiled down to half its original quantity.

1397 Apothecas. The “apothecÆ” were rooms at the top of the house, in which the wines were placed for the purpose of seasoning. Sometimes a current of smoke was directed through them. They were quite distinct from the “cella vinaria,” or “wine-cellar.” The Opimian wine is mentioned in c. 4.

1398 This writer is unknown.

1399 Or amphora.

1400 Vessels containing a congius, or the eighth of an amphora, nearly six pints English.

1401 As to this malady, see B. xi. c. 71.

1402 B.C. 46.

1403 B. xii. c. 61.

1404 Or “labrusca.” “Œnanthinum” means “made of vine flowers.” The wild vine is not a distinct species from the cultivated vine: it is only a variety of it, known in botany as the Vitis silvestris labrusca of Tournefort. FÉe thinks that as the must could only be used in autumn, when the wild vine was not flowering, the flowers of it must have been dried.

1405 “Solstitiales.” Because they withstand the heat of the solstice. Marcellus Empiricus calls them “caniculati,” because they bear the heat of the Dog-star.

1406 FÉe remarks that this assertion is quite erroneous.

1407 From the Greek, meaning “without strength.” The mixture, FÉe remarks, would appear to be neither potable nor wholesome.

1408 See B. xviii. c. 24. A kind of beer might be made with it, FÉe says; but this mixture must have been very unpalatable.

1409 See B. xiii. c. 32.

1410 A vinous drink may be made in the manner here stated; but the palm-wine of the peoples of Asia and Africa is only made of the fermented sap of the tree. See B. xiii. c. 9.

1411 He says “caryotÆ,” and not chydÆÆ, in B. xiii. c. 4. The modius was something more than our peck.

1412 From the Greek s???, a “fig.” This wine was made, FÉe thinks, from the produce of some variety of the sycamore. See B. xiii. c. 14.

1413 “Prime palm” apparently.

1414 Tortivum, probably: the second squeezing.

1415 See B. xiii. c. 15.

1416 See B. xiii. c. 14.

1417 See B. xiii. c. 16.

1418 From ??a, a “pomegranate.”

1419 Dioscorides calls it “strobilites.” FÉe says that they could be of no service in producing a vinous drink.

1420 See B. xv. c. 37.

1421 Or “myrtle wine.”

1422 Myrtle will not make a wine, but simply a medicament, in which wine is the menstruum.

1423 Artemisia abrotonum of LinnÆus.

1424 Ruta graveolens of LinnÆus.

1425 Nepeta cataria of LinnÆus.

1426 Thymus serpyllum of LinnÆus.

1427 Marrubium vulgare of LinnÆus.

1428 Grape-juice boiled down to one-third.

1429 Brassica napus of LinnÆus.

1430 Scilla marina of LinnÆus.

1431 Nardus Gallicus, or Valeriana Celtica of LinnÆus. See B. xii. c. 26.

1432 Nardus silvestris or baccaris.

1433 Aromatic wines.

1434 In c. 15 of this Book.

1435 Valeriana Celtica.

1436 Convolvulus scoparius of LinnÆus.

1437 Andropogon schoenanthus of LinnÆus.

1438 Costus Indicus of LinnÆus.

1439 Andropogon nardus of LinnÆus.

1440 See B. xiii. c. 2.

1441 See B. xii. c. 43.

1442 Crocus sativus of LinnÆus.

1443 Asarum EuropÆum of LinnÆus.

1444 See B. xii. c. 59.

1445 Condita.

1446 Piperata.

1447 Inula helenium of LinnÆus. See B. xxi. c. 91.

1448 Medicago sativa of LinnÆus.

1449 Symphytum officinale of LinnÆus, being all different varieties.

1450 “Absinthites” made of the Artemisia Pontica of LinnÆus. A medicinal wine is still prepared with wormwood; and “apsinthe,” a liqueur much esteemed in France, is made from it.

1451 Hyssopites.

1452 Hyssopites officinalis of LinnÆus.

1453 Helleborites.

1454 Scammonites.

1455 FÉe says that this is not the fact; and queries whether the vulgar notion still entertained on this subject, may not be traced up to our author. It is a not uncommon belief that roses smell all the sweeter if onions are planted near them.

1456 Lavendula stoechas of LinnÆus. See B. xxvii. c. 107.

1457 Gentiana lutea of LinnÆus. See B. xxv. c. 34. Gentian wine is still made.

1458 Thymus tragoriganum of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 68.

1459 Origanum dictamnus of LinnÆus. See B. xxv. c. 63.

1460 Asarum EuropÆum of LinnÆus. See B. xii. c. 27.

1461 Query, if not carrot? See B. xxv. c. 64.

1462 A variety of salvia or sage: it will be mentioned again, further on.

1463 Laserpitium hirsutum of LinnÆus. See B. xxv. cc. 11, 12, and 13.

1464 Acorus calamus of LinnÆus. See B. xxv. c. 100.

1465 See B. xxi. c. 32.

1466 See B. xxi. c. 31.

1467 Atrapora mandragora of LinnÆus. This wine would act as a narcotic poison, it would appear.

1468 Andropogon schoenanthus of LinnÆus. See B. xxi. c. 72.

1469 The origin and meaning of these names are unknown.

1470 See B. xii. c. 11. Juniperus Lycia, and Juniperus Phoenicea of LinnÆus.

1471 Cupressus sempervirens of LinnÆus.

1472 Laurus nobilis of LinnÆus. See B. xv. c. 39.

1473 Juniperus communis of LinnÆus.

1474 See B. xiii. c. 12. The Pistacia terebinthus of LinnÆus.

1475 See B. xii. c. 36. The Pistacia lentiscus of LinnÆus.

1476 “ChamelÆa.” The Granium Cnidium, Daphne Cnidium, and Daphne cneorum of LinnÆus. See B. xiii. c. 35. Venomous plants, which, taken internally, would be productive of dangerous results.

1477 ChamÆpitrys. The Teucrium chamÆpitrys of LinnÆus. See B. xxv. c. 20.

1478 ChamÆdrys. The Teucrium chamÆdrys of LinnÆus. See B. xxiv. c. 80. Dioscorides mentions most of these so-called wines.

1479 Mead, or metheglin. See B. xxii. c. 51.

1480 There is no ground, FÉe says, for this recommendation.

1481 Stoves are now used for this purpose.

1482 “Hydromelum,” on the other hand, made of water and apples, was the same as our modern cider.

1483 See B. xxiii. c. 9.

1484 “Subfervefactis.” “Just come on the boil.”

1485 The oxymel of modern times contains no salt, and is only used as a medicament.

1486 As drinks, no doubt; and with good reason, as to most of them.

1487 Coactus.

1488 Our medicinal wines will mostly keep longer than this, owing probably to the difference in the mode of making the real wines that form their basis.

1489 There is little doubt that this is fabulous: wine taken in excess, we know, is productive of loss of the senses, frenzy in the shape of delirium tremens.

1490 This is not unlikely; for, as FÉe remarks, the red wines, containing a large proportion of alcohol, act upon the brain and promote sleep, while the white wines, charged with carbonic gas, are productive of wakefulness.

1491 Or healing vine. See B. xxiii. c. 11.

1492 “Libanios.” Probably incense was put in this wine, to produce the flavour.

1493 From ?, “not,” and sp??de??, “to make libation.”

1494 See c. 9 of this Book. It was introduced, probably, from Thasos.

1495 From ??????, “to eject.”

1496 Apothecis.

1497 He alludes to the working of wines in periods of extreme heat; also in the spring.

1498 Of our modern wines, Madeira and Bourdeaux improve by being carried across sea. Burgundy, if any thing, deteriorates, by the diminution of its bouquet.

1499 After the grapes had been trodden and pressed, the husks were taken out and their edges cut, and then again subjected to pressure: the result was known as “tortivum,” or “circumcisivum,” a wine of very inferior quality.

1500 He alludes to the young shoots, which have an agreeable acidity, owing to acetic and tartaric acids.

1501 Acetic acid; the result, no doubt, of the faulty mode of manufacture universally prevalent; their wines contained evidently but little alcohol.

1502 See B. xxiii. c. 24, and B. xxxvi. c. 48.

1503 A process very likely, as FÉe remarks, to turn the wines speedily to vinegar.

1504 Down to one-third. This practice of using boiled grape-juice as a seasoning, is still followed in Spain in making some of the liqueurs; but it is not generally recommended.

1505 B. xvi. c. 21.

1506 Asia Minor, namely.

1507 B. xiii. c. 12.

1508 B. xii. c. 37.

1509 It produces but a very minute quantity of resin, which is no longer an article of commerce.

1510 See B. xiii. c. 11, and B. xvi. c. 21. Not the cedar of Lebanon, probably, which only gives a very small quantity of resin, but one of the junipers.

1511 FÉe suggests that this may have been the resin of the Arabian terebinth.

1512 See B. xxiv. c. 22.

1513 Perhaps from the Pistacia terebinthus of LinnÆus.

1515 See B. xxiv. c. 22.

1516 Earths are not soluble in oils.

1517 As being a mark of extreme effeminacy.

1518 The greater the quantity of alcohol, the more resin the wine would be able to hold in solution.

1519 See B. xvi. c. 22.

1520 “Crapula” properly means head-ache, and what is not uncommonly known as “seediness.” Resined wine was thought to be productive of these effects, and hence obtained the name. This kind of wine was used itself, as we see above, in seasoning the other kinds. FÉe remarks, that in reality resins have no such effect as imparting body to weak wines.

1521 The whole of this passage is hopelessly corrupt, and we can only guess at the meaning.

1522 We have already stated that “vappa” is properly vinegar, which has been exposed to the air and has lost its flavour. In this fresh chemical change, which he calls a second fermentation, the wine becomes vinegar; and probably in the cases he mentions, for some peculiar reason, its speedy transition to “vappa” could not be arrested.

1523 Mixed with water, it was the “posca,” or common drink of the Roman soldiers; and it was used extensively both by Greeks and Romans in their cooking, and at meals.

1524 In c. 24.

1525 By the mixture of ashes, FÉe says, the wines would lose their colour, and have a detestable alkaline flavour.

1526 A perfect absurdity, FÉe remarks.

1527 B. xvi. cc. 16-23.

1528 Bitterness, driness, and a disagreeable smell.