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

Chapter 229: CHAP. 44. (23.)—THE CAPPARIS OR CYNOSBATON, OTHERWISE OPHIOSTAPHYLE.

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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. 44. (23.)—THE CAPPARIS OR CYNOSBATON, OTHERWISE OPHIOSTAPHYLE.

In Egypt, too, the capparis 993 is found, a shrub with a wood of much greater solidity. The seed of it is a well-known article of food,994 and is mostly gathered together with the stalk. It is as well, however, to be on our guard against the foreign kinds;995 for that of Arabia has certain deleterious properties, that from Africa is injurious to the gums, and that from Marmarica is prejudicial to the womb and causes flatulence in all the organs. That of Apulia, too, is productive of vomiting, and causes derangement in the stomach and intestines. Some persons call this shrub “cynosbaton,”996 others, again, “ophiostaphyle.”997