2020 This plant is unknown. A rose of this name is mentioned in B. xxi. c. 10.

2021 See B. xiii. c. 36. Fée suggests that it may possibly be a variety of the Pistacia lentiscus of Linnæus, the Mastich-tree, or lentisk. Desfontaines identifies it with the Hypericon hircinum. M. Fräas (Synopsis, p. 182) suggests the Origanum maru.

2022 See B. xiii. c. 37. M. Fräas (Synopsis, p. 257) identifies it with the Ephedra distachya of Linnæus, the Great shrubby horsetail.

2023 “Goat’s-beard. Probably the Tragopogon crocifolium of Linnæus, the Saffron-leaved goat’s beard. Though its properties are not inert; it is never used in medicine”.

2024 In B. xx. c. 3.

2025 See c. 41 of this Book.

2026 See B. xxv. c. 70.

2027 See B. xxv. c. 54.

2028 A kind of fœtid beetle, Hardouin says. Probably an Aphis.

2029 “Serpentis.”

2030 See B. xxii. c. 3.

2031 It is with regret that at the close of this Book, we take leave of the valuable Annotations of M. Fée, a series of illustrations which reflect the highest credit on his learning, his industry, and his critical acumen. Were the ancient authors in general subjected to the same minute examination and thorough enquiry which he has expended upon the Sixteen Botanical Books of Pliny, their value would be greatly enhanced, equally to the critical scholar, and to the general reader who makes his acquaintance with them through the medium of a translation. To say, that, in reference to their respective labours upon Pliny, M. Fée deserves our thanks almost equally with the learned Sillig—now, alas! no more—is to say much indeed in his praise, and to bestow upon him a commendation to which he is eminently entitled.

2032 See end of B. xx.

2033 See end of B. xiv.

2034 See end of B. xii.

2035 See end of B. xx.

2036 See end of B. xx.

2037 See end of B. vii.

2038 See end of B. iii.

2039 See end of B. xi.

2040 See end of B. ii.

2041 Beyond being mentioned here, and in c. 14 of this Book, nothing is known of this writer.

2042 See end of B. xx.

2043 See end of B. ii.

2044 See end of B. viii.

2045 See end of B. xix.

2046 See end of B. viii.

2047 See end of B. xix.

2048 See end of B. xxi.

2049 See end of B. xxi.

2050 See end of B. vii.

2051 See end of B. xx.

2052 See end of B. xx.

2053 See end of B. xv.

2054 See end of B. xii.

2055 See end of B. xv.

2056 See end of B. xii.

2057 See end of B. xx.

2058 See end of B. xx.

2059 See end of B. xx.

2060 See end of B. xx.

2061 See end of B. xx.

2062 See end of B. xx.

2063 See end of B. xx.

2064 See end of B. xx.

2065 See end of B. vii.

2066 See end of B. xx.

2067 See end of B. xx.

2068 See end of B. xii.

2069 See end of B. xi.

2070 See end of B. xii.

2071 See end of B. xx.

2072 See end of B. xii.

2073 See end of B. xx.

2074 See end of B. xx.

2075 See end of B. xx.

2076 See end of B. xx.

2077 See end of B. xx.

2078 See end of B. xii.

2079 See end of B. xx.

2080 See end of B. xx.

2081 See end of B. xxi.

2082 See end of B. xx.

2083 See end of B. xx.

2084 See end of B. xx.

2085 The trees and plants.

2086 On the contrary, this and the four following Books are full of the most extravagant assertions, which bear ample testimony to his credulity notwithstanding the author’s repeated declarations that he does not believe in Magic. As Ajasson says, he evidently does not know what he ought to have inserted in his work, and what to reject as utterly unworthy of belief. His faults, however, were not so much his own as those of his age. Want of space, equally with want of inclination, compels us to forego the task of entering into an examination of the system of Animal Therapeutics upon which so much labour has been wasted by our author.

2087 See B. viii. c. 97, et seq., and B. xxv. c. 89, et seq.

2088 See B. xxviii. c. 3.

2089 This practice is mentioned with reprobation by Celsus and Tertullian. It was continued, however, in some degree through the middle ages, and Louis XV. was accused by his people of taking baths of infants’ blood to repair his premature decrepitude.

2090 In recent times, Guettard, a French practitioner, recommended human marrow as an emollient liniment.

2091 Hence, as Ajasson remarks, the ignorance of anatomy displayed by the ancients.

2092 For further particulars as to Osthanes, see B. xxix. c. 80, and B. xxx. cc. 5 and 6; also cc. 19 and 77 of the present Book. The reading, however, is very doubtful.

2093 “Oculorum suffusiones.” As Ajasson says, the remedy here mentioned reminds us of the more harmless one used by Tobias for the cure of the blindness of his father Tobit.

2094 He gives a great many, however, which are equally abominable.

2095 “Piacula.”

2096 We may here discover the first rudiments of the doctrine of Animal Magnetism.

2097 In accordance with the republican doctrines of Cato of Utica, Brutus, Cassius, and Portia.

2098 Holland remarks, “Looke for no better divinitie in Plinie, a meere Pagan, Epicurean, and professed Atheist.” See B. vii. cc. 53, 54.

2099 Whether or not, they cannot, as Ajasson remarks, be regarded as remedies derived from the human body, being no part of the human body.

2100 “Homini acceptum fieri oportere conveniat.” This passage is probably corrupt.

2101 Beginning with an address to Janus and Vesta, imploring their intercession with the other divinities, and concluding with an appeal to Janus.

2102 “Impetritis.”

2103 “Qui favere linguis jubeat.” “Favete linguis” were the words used in enjoining strict silence.

2104 By him who is offering up the prayer.

2105 A trick adroitly performed by the priests, no doubt.

2106 Given by Livy, in Books viii. and x.

2107 To death, in battle, for the good of their country.

2108 Preserved by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Tertullian and Saint Augustin doubt the authenticity of the story. She is said to have carried water in a sieve from the river Tiber to the temple of Vesta.

2109 “Forum Boarium;” in the Eighth Region of the City.

2110 Of Gaul, as Plutarch informs us, who mentions also the Greek victims, The immolation of the Gauls is supposed to have happened in the beginning of the reign of Vespasian.

2111 Originally the “Decemviri Sacris Faciundis,” whose number was increased by Sylla to fifteen. They had the management of the Games of Apollo, and the Secular Games.

2112 In B. ii. c. 54.

2113 It has been suggested that Tullus Hostilius was acquainted with some of the secrets of electricity, and that he met his death while trying experiments with a lightning conductor. See B. ii. c. 54.

2114 Ajasson thinks that there is an equivoque here upon the word “templum,” which signified not only a building, but certain parts of the heavens, and corresponding lines traced on the earth by the augur’s staff.

2115 This story is mentioned by Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola.

2116 In which case it was considered necessary to repeat the words, “Accipio omen,” “I accept the omen.”

2117 “Qui fruges excantassit.”

2118 “Qui malum carmen incantassit.”

2119 Ajasson is of opinion that this name was either Favra or Fona, Acca, Flora, or Valesia or Valentia.

2120 “As in saying thus, The Devill take thee, or The Ravens peck out thine eyes, or I had rather see thee Pie peckt, and such like.”—Holland.

2121 It is a superstition still practised to pierce the shell of an egg after eating it, “lest the witches should come.” Holland gives the following Note—“Because afterwards no witches might pricke them with a needle in the name and behalfe of those whom they would hurt and mischeefe, according to the practice of pricking the images of any person in wax; used in the witchcraft of these daies.” We learn from Ajasson that till recently it was considered a mark of ill-breeding in France not to pierce the shell after eating the egg. See also Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 19, Bohn’s Ed.

2122 See the Eighth Eclogue of Virgil.

2123 “That is to say, Arse verse, out of Afranius, as Festus noteth, which in the old Tuscane language signifieth, Averte ignem, Put backe the fire.”—Holland.

2124 Odyss. xix. 457. It is not Ulysses, but the sons of Autolycus that do this. Their bandages, however, were more likely to be effectual.

2125 De Enthusiasmo.

2126 See B. xvii. c. 47.

2127 In passing along the Velabrum, on the occasion of his Gallic triumph, the axle of the carriage having broke.

2128 See Ovid’s Fasti, B. i. l. 175, et seq., and Epist. de Ponto. B. iv. El. 4. l. 23, et seq.

2129 See B. xi. c. 103.

2130 Hence the saying, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum.”

2131 “Defunctorum memoriam a nobis non sollicitari.”

2132 It is still a saying, and perhaps a belief, that “There is luck in odd numbers.”

2133 This has been a practice from the earliest times to the present day. See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 123, Bohn’s Ed.

2134 In France and England, at the present day, this notion, or rather, perhaps, the memory of it, is universally to be found. If the right ear tingles, some one is speaking well of us; if the left ear, the reverse.

2135 King Attalus Philometor. See end of B. viii.

2136 “Two.”

2137 This passage, it is pretty clear, ought to follow the preceding one, though in the Latin it is made to precede.

2138 The thumb was turned upwards as a mark of favour, downwards, as a mark of disfavour.

2139 “Repositorium.”

2140 It was not yet the custom to bring in several courses, each served up on a separate table.

2141 Good manners possibly, more than superstition, may have introduced this practice.

2142 Or Pluto. He alludes to the Feralia, or feasts celebrated, in the month of February, in honour of the dead.

2143 Or household god.

2144 The “Nundinæ,” held every ninth day; or rather every eighth day, according to our mode of reckoning.

2145 Gronovius suggests a reading which would make this to mean that it is “ominous to touch money with the forefinger.” It does not appear to be warranted, however.

2146 Twenty-eighth, according to our reckoning.

2147 Probably from their ominous resemblance to the Parcæ, or Fates, with their spindles.

2148 “Frugum.”

2149 “Princeps civitatis.”

2150 “Rho” and “Alpha.”

2151 In B. vii. c. 2.

2152 In B. vii. c. 2, he speaks of these people—“the serpent-born”—as natives of Parium, a town of the Hellespont. Ajasson suggests that they may have been a branch of the Thamirades, a sacerdotal family of Cyprus.

2153 “Dolium.”

2154 See B. viii. c. 38.

2155 Ajasson has thought it worth while to contradict this assertion.

2156 Meaning, of course, in case such an accident should befall the party. The passage appears, however, to be corrupt.

2157 “Hasta velitaris.”

2158 In B. vii. c. 2.

2159 It is the shoulder-blade of Pelops that is generally mentioned in the ancient Mythology. Pliny omits to say of what medicinal virtues it was possessed.

2160 In B. vii. c. 2.

2161 It certainly does seem to be possessed of some efficacy for the removal of spots and stains, but for no other purpose probably.

2162 In some parts of France, the peasants spit in the hand when in terror of spectres at night. In our country, prize-fighters spit in the hand before beginning the combat, and costermongers spit on their morning’s handsel, or first earned money, for good luck.

2163 “In sinum.”

2164 See Juvenal, Sat. v. l. 112.

2165 Ajasson remarks that the human spittle contains hydrochlorate of soda and potash; the remedial virtues of which, however, would be infinitely small.

2166 A quibble, Ajasson remarks. Did Pliny ever test it himself? He would seem to imply it.

2167 “Levatur illico in percusso culpa.”

2168 This is still the case with pugilists, and persons requiring to use strong exertion. It is based, however, on a mere superstition, as Ajasson remarks.

2169 “Malum terræ.” See B. xxv. c. 54, and B. xxvi. c. 56. Littré translates “malum,” “apple,” in the former passage; but here he calls it “curse of the earth.”

2170 “Rubetas.” See B. viii. c. 48, B. xi. cc. 19, 76, and 116, and B. xxv. c. 76.

2171 This divinity was identical with Mutinus or Tutinus, and was worshipped under the form of a phallus, the male generative organ. As the guardian of infants, his peculiar form is still unconsciously represented in the shape of the coral bauble with which infants are aided in cutting their teeth.

2172 Hence the expression “præfiscini,” “Be it said without envy,” supposed to avert the effects of the envious eye, fascination, or enchantment.

2173 “Resipiscere” seems to be a preferable reading to “respicere,” adopted by Sillig. This passage is evidently in a very corrupt state; but it is most probable that reference is made to the attendant who stood behind the general in his triumph, and reminded him that he was a man—or, according to Tzetzes, bade him look behind him. Pliny speaks of a servant attending the triumphant general, with a golden crown, in B. xxxiii. c. 4. Hardouin attempts another explanation, but a very confused and improbable one.