Chapter 454

699Oil of ben. See B. xii. c.48.

700Or metopium. See Note690above.

701Made from olives. See B. xii. c.60.

702See B. xii. c.29.

703The modern Andropogon schœnanthus. See B. xii. c.48.

704See B. xii. c.48.

705Carpobalsamum. See. B. xii. c.54.

706See B. xii. c.56.

707Fluid resin of coniferous trees of Europe.

708See B. xv. c.35.

709Cupressus semper-virens. He does not say what part of the tree was employed.

710See B. xii. c.36.

711See c.34of the present Book.

712The alkanet and cinnabar were only used for colouring.

713“Sampsuchinum.” It is generally supposed that the sampsuchum, and the amaracus were the same, the sweet marjoram, or Origanum marjorana of Linnæus. Fée, however, is of a contrary opinion. See B. xxi. c. 35. In Dioscorides, B. i. c. 59, there is a difference made between sampsuchinum and amaracinum, though but a very slight one.

714The bark of the Cassia lignea of the pharmacopœa, the Laurus cassia of botany. See B. xii. c.43.

715See B. xii. c.26. The Andropogon nardus of Linnæus.

716See B. xii. c.41.

717See B. xxiii. c. 54, also B. xv. c.10. The Malum struthium, or “sparrow quince,” was an oblong variety of the fruit.

718Sesamum orientale of Linnæus. See B. xviii. c. 22, and B. xxii. c. 54.

719Balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c.54.

720Southernwood. The Artemisia abrotonum of Linnæus.

721Or lily unguent, made of the lily of Susa, which had probably a more powerful smell than that of Europe. Dioscorides gives its composition, B. i. c. 63.

722The Crocus sativus of Linnæus.

723Cyprinum. It has been previously mentioned in this Chapter.

724See B. xii. c.52.

725The gum resin of the Pastinaca opopanax of Linnæus. See B. xii. c.57.

726Or unguent of fenugreek, from the Greekτῆλις, meaning that plant, the Trigonella fœnum Græcum of Linnæus. See B. xxiv. c. 120.

727See B. ii. c. 26, and B. xxi. c. 68-70.

728The Trifolium melilotus of Linnæus. See B. xxi. c. 30.

729See B. xii. c.53.

730He would imply that it was so called from the Greekμεγὰς, “great;” but it was more generally said that it received its name from its inventor, Megalus.

731See B. xii. c.5.

732Fée does not appear to credit this statement. By the use of the word “ventiletur,” “fanned” may be possibly implied.

733See B. xii. c.59.

734The Agnus castus of Linnæus. See B. xxiv. c. 38. The leaves are quite inodorous, though the fruit of this plant is slightly aromatic.

735“Externa.” The reading is doubtful, and it is difficult to say what is the exact meaning of the word.

736Cinnamomino.

737Nardinum.

738Or leaf unguent, so called from being made of leaves of nard. See B. xii. c.27.

739See B. xii. c.25.

740See B. xii. c.28.

741See B. xii. c.26,27, where the list is given.

742See B. xii. c.35.

743Susinum. See p.163.

744Summa auctoritas rei.

745See B. xii. c.46.

746See B. xii. c.53.

747See B. xii. c.55.

748See B. xii. c.37.

749See B. xii. c.48.

750See B. xii. c.48.

751See B. xii. c.45.

752Fée suggests that this may be the Nymphæa cœrulea of Savigny, a plant that is common in the Nile, and the flowers of which exhale a sweet odour.

753The diapasmata were dry, odoriferous powders, similar to those used at the present day in sachets and scent-bags.

754“Fæcem unguenti.”

755This word is still used in pharmacy to denote the husks or residuary matter left after the extraction of the juice.

756See B. xxxvi. c. 12. See also Mark xiv. 7, and John xii. 3. Leaden boxes were also used for a similar purpose.

757Odores.

758“Heres.” The person was so called who succeeded to the property, whether real or personal, of an intestate.

759See B. xvii. c.3, where he quotes this passage from Cicero at length. It appears to be from De Orat. B. iii. c. 69. Both Cicero and Pliny profess to find a smell that arises from the earth itself, through the agency of the sun. But, as Fée remarks, pure earth is perfectly inodorous. He suggests, however, that this odour attributed by the ancients to the earth, may in reality have proceeded from the fibrous roots of thyme and other plants. If such is not the real solution, it seems impossible to suggest any other.

760By giving preference to the more simple odours.

761“Crassitudo.”

762Or “thick” unguent.

763We learn from Athenæus, and a passage in the Aulularia of Plautus, that this was done long before Nero’s time, among the Greeks.

764Who succeeded Galba. He was one of Nero’s favourite companions in his debaucheries.

765Caligula.

766Solium.

767After victories, for instance, or when marching orders were given.

768This is said in bitter irony.

769Sub casside.

770Asia Minor more particularly.

771Exotica.

772The organs of taste and of smell.

773We have this fact alluded to in the works of Plautus, Juvenal, Martial, and Ælian. The Greeks were particularly fond of mixing myrrh with their wine. Nard wine is also mentioned by Plautus. Miles Gl. iii. 2, 11.

774Or Lucius Plautius Plancus. He was proscribed by the triumvirs, with the sanction of his brother. In consequence of his use of perfumes, the place of his concealment “got wind;” and in order to save his slaves, who were being tortured to death because they would not betray him, he voluntarily surrendered himself.

775Attaching to the triumvirate.

776Capua, its capital, was the great seat of the unguent and perfume manufacture in Italy.

777The Phœnix dactylifera of Linnæus. See also B. xii. c.62, where he seems also to allude to this tree.

778At the present day this is not the fact. The village of La Bordighiera, situate on an eminence of the Apennines, grows great quantities of dates, of good quality. At Hieres, Nice, San Remo, and Genoa, they are also grown.

779This, too, is not the fact. The dates of Valencia, Seville, and other provinces of Spain, are sweet, and of excellent quality.

780Pliny is wrong again in this statement. The date of Barbary, Tunis, Algiers, and Bildulgerid, the “land of dates,” is superior in every respect to that of the East.

781The Æthiopians, as we learn from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

782Or in a wild state.

783“Tectorii vicem.” They were probably planted in rows, close to the wall.

784This mode of ascending the date-palm is still practised in the East.

785See B. xvi. c.37.

786“Umbracula.” The fibres of the leaves were probably platted or woven, and the “umbracula” made in much the same manner as the straw and fibre hats of the present day.

787Most of this is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. ii. 9.

788Fée remarks, that this account is quite erroneous.

789This he copies also from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

790Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8, mentions this as a kind of date peculiar to Cyprus.

791This is said solely in relation to the date of Cyprus.

792Or “dwellers in tents;” similar to the modern Bedouins.

793Fée remarks, that in these words we find the first germs of the sexual system that has been established by the modern botanists. He thinks that it is clearly shown by this account, that Pliny was acquainted with the fecundation of plants by the agency of the pollen.

794In allusion to the pollen, possibly. See the lastNote.

795“Lanugine.” It is possible that in the use of this word, also, he may allude to the pollen. Under the term “pulvis,” “dust,” he probably alludes in exaggerated terms to the same theory.

796The same methods of propagating the palm are still followed in the East, and in the countries near the tropics.

797In c.7of the present Book. See also B. xvii. c.3.

798Fée mentions one near Elvas in Spain, which shot up into seven distinct trees, as it were, from a single trunk. The Douma Thebaica, he says, of Syria and Egypt, a peculiar kind of palm, is also bifurcated. The fruit of it, he thinks, are very probably the Phænico-balanus of B. xii. c.47.

799“Spado.” Represented by the Greekεὔνουχοςandἔνορχος.

800“Cæduæ.” Though this is the fact as to some palm-trees, the greater part perish after being cut; the vital bud occupying the summit, and the trunk not being susceptible of any increase.

801Cerebrum.

802The Chamæreps humilis of the modern botanists. It is found, among other countries, in Spain, Morocco, and Arabia.

803Vitilia.

804“Vivaces.” Perhaps it may mean that the wood retains the fire for a long time, when it burns.

805Fée suggests that Pliny may possibly have confounded the fruit of other palms with the date.

806This seems to have been a general name, as Pliny says, meaning an eunuch; but it is evident that it was also used as a proper name, as in the case of the eunuch who slew Artaxerxes, Ochus,B.C.338, by poison, and of another eunuch who belonged to Darius, but afterwards fell into the hands of Alexander, of whom he became an especial favourite. The name is sometimes written “Bagoüs,” and sometimes “Bagoas.”

807Dominantis in aula.

808From the Greekσύαγρος, “a wild boar,” as Pliny afterwards states; they being so called from their peculiar wild taste.

809See B. vi. c. 39.

810Said to have been so called from the Greekκάρη, “the head,” andὑωδία, “stupidity,” owing to the heady nature of the wine extracted from the fruit.

811See B. vi. c. 32, and B. xiv. c.19.

812The Jericho of Scripture.

813Athenæus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting Rome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of “Nicolaän,” down to the middle ages.

814Pliny would imply that they are so called from the Greekἀδέλφια, “a sister,” as being of sister quality to the caryotæ; but it is much more probable, as Fée remarks, that they got this name from being attached in pairs to the same pedicle or stalk.

815Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greekπατέω, “to tread under foot,” and Hardouin is of that opinion. Fée, however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac “patach,” “to expand,” or “open,” or else from the Hebrew “pathah,” the name of the first vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form.

816From the Greekχυδαῖος, “vulgar,” or “common,” it is supposed. The Jews probably called them so, as being common, or offered by the Gentiles to their idols and divinities. Pliny evidently considers that in the name given to them no compliment was intended to the deities of the heathen mythology.

817From its extreme driness, and its shrivelled appearance.

818From Theophrastus, B. i. c. 16.

819Κύκως in the Greek. It is supposed by Sprengel to be the same as the Cycas circinnalis of Linnæus; but, as Fée remarks, that is only found in India.

820From the Greek, meaning “sweetmeats,” or “dessert fruit:” he probably means that in Syria and some parts of Phœnicia they were thus called.

821This story, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 5, is doubted by Fée, who says that in the green state they are so hard and nauseous, that it is next to impossible to eat sufficient to be materially incommoded by them.

822The Pistacia vera of Linnæus. It was introduced into Rome in the reign of Tiberius. The kernel is of no use whatever in a medical point of view, and what Pliny says about its curing the bite of serpents is perfectly fabulous.

823See B. xv. c.19. The “carica” was properly the “Carian” fig. “Ficus carica” is, however, the name given to the common fig by the modern botanists.

824The parent of our Damascenes, or damsons. See B. xv. c.13.

825Supposed to be the Corda myxa of Linnæus. See B. xv. c.15.

826The Juniperus communis of Linnæus.

827The Juniperus Lycia, and the Juniperus Phœnicia, probably, of Linnæus. It has been supposed by some, that it is these trees that produce the frankincense of Africa; but, as Fée observes, the subject is enveloped in considerable obscurity.

828The “sharp-leaved” cedar. The Juniperus oxycedrus of Linnæus.

829The “Pinus cedrus” of Linnæus. The name “cedrus” was given by the ancients not only to the cedar of Lebanon, but to many others of the Coniferæ as well, and more particularly to several varieties of the juniper.

830See B. xxxvi. c. 4.

831Pistacia terebinthus of Linnæus.

832These varieties, Fée says, are not observed by modern naturalists.

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