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.
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 Phœnicia.
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 σὰρξ, “flesh,” and κόλλα, “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, διφθέραι, 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.
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 supinâ 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.
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. πίναξ, 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.
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 Θύον, “wood of sacrifice.”
936 Od. B. v. l. 60. Pliny makes a mistake in saying “Circe;” it should be “Calypso.”
937 Θύον.
938 Crispius.
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.
949 The same as the Nymphæa Nelumbo of the Nile, according to Fée.
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 ἀπύρηνον, “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.