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

Chapter 298: CHAP. 31. (26.)—THE CORNEL. THE LENTISK.

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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. 31. (26.)—THE CORNEL. THE LENTISK.

The same degree of care is expended also on the cultivation of the cornel 2018 and the lentisk;2019 that it may not be thought, forsooth, that there is anything that was not made for the craving appetite of man! Various flavours are blended together, and one is compelled to please our palates by the aid of another—hence it is that the produce of different lands and various climates are so often mingled with one another. For one kind of food it is India that we summon to our aid, and then for another we lay Egypt under contribution, or else Crete, or Cyrene, every country, in fact: no, nor does man stick at poisons 2020 even, if he can only gratify his longing to devour everything: a thing that will be still more evident when we come to treat of the nature of herbs.