2522 B. xviii. c. 51.
2524 This is not the fact: the fruits of all trees have their proper time for ripening.
2525 He speaks here in too general terms; the pear, for instance, is not more fruitful when old than when young.
2527 So our proverb, “Soon ripe, soon rotten;” applicable to mankind as well as trees. See B. xxiii. c. 23.
2529 This stimulates the sap, and adds to its activity: but the tree grows old all the sooner, being the more speedily exhausted.
2531 This passage is quite unintelligible; and it is with good reason that Fée questions whether Pliny really understood the author that he copied from.
2532 Fée remarks, that Pliny does not seem to know that the catkin is an assemblage of flowers, and that without it the tree would be totally barren.
2533 Pliny blunders sadly here, in copying from Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 16. He mixes up a description of the box and the cratægus, or holm-oak, making the latter to be a seed of the former: and he then attributes a mistletoe to the box, which Theophrastus speaks of as growing on the cratægus.
2535 See B. xxiv. c. 71.
2538 This statement is entirely incorrect. If a tree loses the terminal bud, it will grow no higher; but it will not die if the extremities of the branches are cut. Such, in fact, is much more likely to happen when they are all cut off, from the extreme loss of juices which must naturally ensue at the several cicatrices united.
2539 The Celtis australis of Linnæus. Pliny is in error in calling this tree the “Grecian bean.” In B. xiii. c. 22, he erroneously calls the African lotus by the name of “celtis,” which only belongs to the lotus of Italy; that of Africa being altogether different.
2540 The bark, which is astringent, is still used in preparing skins, and a black colouring matter extracted from the root is employed in dyeing wool.
2541 Quite an accidental resemblance, if, indeed, it ever existed.
2542 “Oculus”—the bud on the trunk.
2543 This must be either a mistake or an exaggeration; the cherry never being a very large tree.
2544 It is evident that he is speaking of the epidermis only, and not the cortical layers and the liber.
2545 The roots of trees being ligneous, “carnosæ,” Fée remarks, is an inappropriate term.
2546 Georg. ii. 291.
2547 “Lagenas.” Fée takes this to mean here vessels to hold liquids, and remarks that the workers in wicker cannot attain this degree of perfection at the present day.
2548 Pliny is in error in rejecting this notion.
2549 See B. xii. c. 5, and B. xiii. c. 29. What Pliny states of the fir, or Abies pectinata, Theophrastus relates of the πεύκη, or Abies excelsa of Decandolles. There is little doubt that in either case the statement is incorrect.
2550 On the contrary, the roots of trees increase in size till the period of their death.
2551 By preventing the action of the air from drying the roots, and so killing the tree.
2552 A grove, probably, consecrated to the Muses.
2553 These stories must be regarded as either fables or impostures; though it is very possible for a tree to survive after the epidermis has been removed with the adze.
2556 It is not improbable that he has in view here the passage in Virgil’s Georgics, B. ii. l. 109, et seq.
2557 Or balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c. 54. Bruce assures us that it is indigenous to Abyssinia; if so, it has been transplanted in Arabia. It is no more to be found in Judæa.
2558 This is inserted, as it is evident that the text without it is imperfect. Fée says that even in Judæa it was transplanted from Arabia.
2562 This cannot be the ordinary Piper nigrum, or black pepper, which does not deserve the title “arbor.” It is, no doubt, the pepper of Italy, which he mentions in B. xii. c. 14.
2563 The Cassia Italica, probably, of B. xii. c. 43. The cassia of the East could not possibly survive in Italy. The fact is, no doubt, that the Romans gave the names of cassia, piper, and amomum, to certain indigenous plants, and then persuaded themselves that they had the genuine plants of the East.
2565 Under the name of Cedrus, no doubt, several of the junipers have been included. See B. xiii. c. 11.
2566 Fée is inclined to doubt this statement. The myrtle has been known to stand the winters of Lower Brittany.
2567 Owing, no doubt, as Fée says, solely to bad methods of cultivation. The same, too, with the grafted peach and the Greek nut or almond.
2568 The Cupressus sempervirens of Linnæus, the Cupressus fastigiata of Decandolle.
2569 De Re Rust. cc. 48, 151.
2570 “Morosa;” meaning that it reaches maturity but very slowly.
2571 Tristis tentantum sensu torquebit amaror.—Virg. Georg. ii. 247.
2572 This statement is exaggerated.
2573 It is still to be seen very frequently in the cemeteries of Greece and Constantinople.
2574 The cypress is in reality monœcious, the structure of the same plant being both male and female.
2575 This was formerly done with the cypress, in England, to a considerable extent. Such absurdities are now but rare.
2576 The Cupressus fastigiata of Decandolle: and a variety of the Cupressus sempervirens of Linnæus.
2577 The Cupressus horizontalis of Miller; the variety B of the C. sempervirens of Linnæus.
2578 The present name given to this tree in the island of Crete, is the “daughter’s dowry.”
2579 De Re Rust. c. 151.
2580 B. iii. c. 12.
2581 This, Fée says, is the case with none of the coniferous trees.
2582 Of course this spontaneous creation of the cypress is fabulous; and, indeed, the whole account, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, is greatly exaggerated.
2583 B. xix. c. 15.
2584 This story, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, is evidently fabulous.
2585 Meaning Asia Minor.
2586 Hist. Plant. B. iii c. 10.
2587 See B. vi. c. 23.
2588 Bacchus, after the alleged conquest by him of India, was said to have returned crowned with ivy, and seated in a car drawn by tigers.
2589 It is a mistake to suppose that the ivy exhausts the juices of trees. Its tendrils fasten upon the cortical fissures; and, if the tree is but small, its development is apt to be retarded thereby. It is beneficial, rather than destructive, to walls.
2590 This plant is really monœcious or androgynous.
2591 The Rosa Eglanteria.
2592 The Hedera helix of Linnæus, or, possibly, a variety of it with variegated leaves.
2593 The Hedera arborea of C. Bauhin, the common ivy.
2594 The Hedera major sterilis of C. Bauhin.
2595 The first variety of the common ivy, the Hedera helix of Linnæus.
2596 A wreath of ivy was the usual prize in the poetic contests.
2597 See B. v. c. 16, and B. vi. c. 23.
2598 The “red berry” and the “golden fruit.”
2599 The berries are yellow in the first variety of the common ivy, the Hedera poetica of C. Bauhin.
2600 This is the case sometimes with the black ivy, the Hedera arborea of C. Bauhin. Only isolated cases, however, are to be met with.
2601 There is an ivy of this kind, the Hedera humi repens of botanists; but most of the commentators are of opinion that it is the ground ivy, the Glechoma hederacea of Linnæus, that is spoken of. Sprengel takes it to be the Anthirrinum Azarina, from which opinion, however, Fée dissents.
2602 The Smilax aspera of Linnæus; the sarsaparilla plant.
2603 Fée is inclined to question this; but the breadth of the tablets may have been very small in this instance.
2604 Of course this is fabulous: though it is not impossible that the writing on the tablets may sometimes have caused “a noise in the world,” and that hence the poets may have given rise to this story.
2605 Pliny borrows this fabulous story from Cato, De Re Rust. c. 3.
2606 The reeds cannot be appropriately ranked among the shrubs.
2607 For musical purposes, namely.
2608 B. v. c. 20.
2609 “Calamus.” The so-called reed of the East, used for making darts and arrows, does not belong to the genus Arundo, but to those of the Bambos and Nastus.
2610 Few readers of history will fail to recollect the report made to King Henry V. by Davy Gam, before the battle of Agincourt:—“The enemy are so numerous,” said the messenger, “that their arrows will darken the sun.” “We must e’en be content to fight in the dark then,” was the warrior’s reply.
2611 See B. vii. c. 2. This is probably an exaggeration. He alludes to the Bambos arundinacea of Lamarck, the Arundo arbor of C. Bauhin.
2612 The Arundo donax of Linnæus.
2613 Or the pipe-reed.
2614 The tibia, or pipe, was played lengthwise, like the flageolet or clarionet.
2615 A variety of the Arundo donax. The Orchomenian reed is of the same class. The fistula was played sideways; and seems to have been a name given both to the Syrinx or the Pandæan pipes, and the flute, properly so called.
2616 In the last Chapter. The Arundo donax, probably, so far as European warfare was concerned.
2617 A variety of the Arundo donax of Linnæus.
2618 This is not the fact.
2619 The Arundo versicolor of Miller.
2620 Constantinus and Schneider, upon Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 11, suspect the correctness of this word.
2621 See B. xx. c. 88, and B. xxxii. c. 52.
2622 The Arundo phragmites of Linnæus. The Plotias, no doubt, was only a variety of it.
2623 “Arundo tibialis.” The story about the time taken by it to grow, and the increase of the waters, is, of course, fabulous.
2624 The “yoke reed,” or “reed for a double flute.”
2625 Perhaps so called from the silkiness of its flossy pinicules.
2626 This seems to be the meaning of “ad inclusos cantus.”
2627 B. xviii. c. 74.
2628 Lingulis.
2629 The words “dextræ” and “sinistræ,” denote the treble and the bass flutes; it is thought by some, because the former were held with the right hand, and the latter with the left. Two treble or bass flutes were occasionally played on at the same time.
2631 These were of the variety Zeugites, previously mentioned.
2632 Fée suggests, that what he mentions here may not have been a reed at all, but one of the cyperaceous plants, the papyrus, perhaps.
2633 De Re Rust. c. 6. It was the donax that was thus employed; as it is in France at the present day.
2635 See B. xix. c. 42.
2636 The white willow, Salix Alba of Linnæus.
2637 The Salix vitellina more particularly is used in France for this purpose.
2638 The Salix helix of Linnæus.
2639 The Salix amygdalina of Linnæus.
2640 De Re Rust. c. 6. Fée remarks that the notions of modern agriculturists are very different on this point.
2641 The Salix purpurea of Linnæus: the Salix vulgaris rubens of C. Bauhin.
2642 This belongs, probably, to the Salix helix of Linnæus.
2643 Fée queries whether this may not be the Salix incana of Schrank and Hoffmann, the bark of which is a brown green.
2644 Belonging to the Salix helix of Linnæus.
2645 Belonging to the Salix purpurea of Linnæus.
2646 Field-mouse or squirrel colour. See B. viii. c. 82. The same, probably, as the Salix vitellina of Linnæus.
2647 A variety, Fée thinks, of the Salix rubens.
2648 The Scirpus lacustris of Linnæus.
2649 And not in front of them.
2650 Mapalia.
2651 Egypt, namely.
2652 The bramble is sometimes found on the banks of watery spots and in marshy localities, but more frequently in mountainous and arid spots.
2653 Known to us as blackberries. This tree is the Rubus fruticosus of Linnæus; the same as the Rubus tomentosus, and the Rubus corylifolius of other modern botanists.
2654 The Rosa canina of Linnæus: the dog-rose or Eglantine.
2655 The Rubus Idæus of botanists; the ordinary raspberry.
2656 See B. xxiv. c. 75.
2657 See B. xxiv. c. 35.
2658 They are still used for dyeing, but not for staining the hair.
2659 Only as a purgative, probably.
2660 Though the acid it contains would curdle milk, still its natural acridity would disqualify it from being used for making cheese.
2661 The white sap or inner bark; the aubier of the French. Fée remarks, that its supposed analogy with fat is incorrect.
2662 He means the outer ligneous layers of the wood. They differ only in their relative hardness.
2663 “Pulpæ.” The ligneous fibres which form the tissue of the bark.
2664 “Venæ.” By this term he probably means the nutritive vessels and the ligneous fibres united. It was anciently the general belief that the fibres acted their part in the nutriment of the tree.