The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 195: CHAP. 10. (5.)—THE TREES OF SYRIA: THE PISTACIA, THE COTTANA, THE DAMASCENA, AND THE MYXA.

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The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 10. (5.)—THE TREES OF SYRIA: THE PISTACIA, THE COTTANA, THE DAMASCENA, AND THE MYXA.

In addition to the palm, Syria has several trees that are peculiar to itself. Among the nut-trees there is the pistacia,822 well known among us. It is said that, taken either in food or drink, the kernel of this nut is a specific against the bite of serpents. Among figs, too, there are those known as “caricæ,”823 together with some smaller ones of a similar kind, the name of which is “cottana.” There is a plum, too, which grows upon Mount Damascus,824 as also that known as the “myxa;”825 these last two are, however, now naturalized in Italy. In Egypt, too, they make a kind of wine from the myxa.