Chapter 463

1984See B. xiii. c.16.

1985This skin is not eatable. It is fibrous and astringent.

1986In B. xvi. c.6.

1987“Acinis.” The grape, ivy-berry, elder-berry, and others.

1988“Inter cutem succumque.”

1989Baccis. Some confusion is created by the non-existence of English words to denote the difference between “acinus” and “bacca.” The latter is properly the “berry;” the grape being the type of the “acinus.”

1990See B. xvi. c.41. The mulberry is the Morus nigra of modern naturalists. It is generally thought that this was the only variety known to the ancients; but Fée queries, from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which represents the mulberry as changing from white to blood colour, that the white mulberry was not unknown to them; but through some cause, now unknown, was gradually lost sight of.

1991This is still the case with the mulberry.

1992See B. xvi. c.71, and B. xxiv. c. 73. He alludes to the blackberry.

1993The common strawberry, the Fragaria vesca of Linnæus. See B. xxi. c. 50. A native of the Alps and the forests of Gaul, it was unknown to the Greeks.

1994The Arbutus unedo of Linnæus. It is one of the ericaceous trees, and its fruit bears a considerable resemblance to the strawberry—otherwise there is not the slightest affinity between them. The taste of the arbute is poor indeed, compared to that of the strawberry.

1995He suggests that it is so called from “unum edo,” “I eat but one;” a rather fanciful etymology, it would seem.

1996This supposition is not warranted, from merely the fact of there being two names.

1997See B. xvi. c.52.

1998See B. xxiv. c. 35.

1999See B. xiii. c.34.

2000“Baccis.” Berries, properly so called.

2001The Celtis Australis of Linnæus.

2002Supposed by some to be the holly. See B. xxv. c. 72.

2003He alludes to a variety of the cratægus.

2004The Cerasus vulgaris of modern botanists. It is said to have obtained its name from Cerasus, in Asia Minor, where Lucullus found it.

2005He must allude to what he has stated in B. xii. c.3, for he has nowhere said that the cherry will not grow in Egypt. It is said that the cherry is not to be found in Egypt at the present day.

2006The griotte cherry of the French, the mazzard of the English.

2007A variety of the mazzard, Fée thinks.

2008Some take this for the Cerasus Juliana, the guignier of the French, our white heart; others, again, for the merisier, our morello.

2009It is most generally thought that this is the Cerasus avium of botanists, our morello, which is a very tender cherry.

2010Or “hard berry,” the Prunus bigarella of Linnæus, the red bigaroon.

2011Fée queries whether it may not have received its name of “Pliniana” in compliment to our author, or one of his family.

2012Hardouin thinks that this Portuguese cherry is the griotte, or mazzard.

2013No such cherry is known at the present day.

2014Such a graft is impossible; the laurel-cherry must have had some other origin.

2015Fée suggests that this may be the early dwarf cherry.

2016Or “ground-cherry;” a dwarf variety, if, indeed, it was a cherry-tree at all, of which Fée expresses some doubt.

2017This explains, Fée says, why it will not grow in Egypt.

2018The Cornus mas of Linnæus. The fruit of the cornel has a tart flavour, but is not eaten in modern Europe, except by school-boys.

2019That produces mastich. See B. xii. c.36.

2020He alludes more especially, perhaps, to the use of cicuta or hemlock by drunkards, who looked upon it as an antidote to the effects of wine. See B. xiv. c.7.

2021Fée remarks, that in this enumeration there is no method. Linnæus enumerates eleven principal flavours in the vegetable kingdom—dry or insipid, aqueous, viscous, salt, acrid, styptic, sweet, fat, bitter, acid, and nauseous; these terms, however seem, some of them, to be very indefinite.

2022It requires considerable discernment to appropriate nicely its English synonym to these four varieties of tastes, “acer, acutus, acerbus, and acidus,” more especially when we find that the “bitter” and the “rough” are occupied already by the “amarus” and the “austerus.”

2023In allusion, probably, to the pungency of the aroma or bouquet.

2024Lenitate.

2025This seems to be the meaning of “succus.”

2026The “insipid.”

2027This is so much the case, that the most nauseous medicine may be taken almost with impunity—so far as taste is concerned—by tightly pressing the nostrils while taking it.

2028Fée remarks that this is true of fire, and of distilled or perfectly pure water; but that physiologists are universally agreed that the air has its own peculiar smell.

2029All fruits that are rich in sugar and amidine, Fée says, either have, or acquire in time, a vinous flavour, by the development of a certain quantity of alcohol.

2030In the fruit with a fixed oil, this principle succeeds, when they are ripe, to the mucilaginous.

2031He must mean a thinner juice, though still sweet.

2032About the peduncle or stalk of the fig. The juice here, Fée says, is a real sugar, of the same nature as that which circulates throughout the whole fruit: the juice in the interior of which is produced by another order of vessels.

2033The juice is only foamy when the vinous fermentation is established. It has that appearance, however, when the fruit is bitten with the teeth.

2034The “hard-berry,” or nectarine.

2035In the sense of aromatic, or penetrating.

2036He probably means those of a luscious or sirupy nature, without any acidity whatever.

2037He seems to mean that the thick, luscious wines require longer keeping, before they will gain any aroma at all. This would be done, probably, at the expense of their sweetness.

2038Or he may mean, that a fine flavour and a fine smell cannot co-exist.

2039The reading here should be “acutissimus,” probably, instead of “acerrimus.” The odour exists in the rind of the citron and in the outer coat of the quince; if these are removed, the fruit becomes inodorous.

2040“Tenuis.” He may possibly mean “faint.”

2041The fruit of the ben, or myrobalanus, the Balanites Ægyptiaca. See B. xiii. cc.17and19.

2042Vitium.

2043Hard-berry or nectarine. See c.11.

2044Lignum: literally, “wood.” “There is no wood, either within or without.” He has one universal name for what we call shell, seed, stones, pips, grains, &c.

2045The “spado,” or “eunuch” date. See B. xiii. c.8.

2046See B. xiii. c.17. The fruit of the ben is alluded to, but, as Fée observes, Pliny is wrong in calling it an almond, as it is a pulpy fruit.

2047The Nymphæa nelumbo of Linnæus.

2048Or shell, which, as Fée remarks, participates but very little in the properties of the flesh.

2049Or “honey” apple; see c.15of this Book.

2050Or “Carian” fig. See c.19of this Book.

2051See B. xiii. c.11.

2052See B. xiii. c.42, and B. xx. cc. 9 and 23.

2053See B. xiii. c.26, and B. xxiv. c. 66.

2054See B. xiii. c.22. Fée remarks that it is singular how the ancients could eat the branches of the fig-tree, the juice being actually a poison.

2055See B. xiii. c.44.

2056See c.26of this Book.

2057He is wrong: the same is the case with the berries of the laurel, and, indeed, many other kinds of berries.

2058See c.7of this Book.

2059See B. xiv. c.9.

2060See B. xii. c.14.

2061A kind of sausage, seasoned with myrtle. See also B. xxvii c. 49.

2062He means the Acroceraunian chain in Epirus, mentioned in B. iii.

2063See B. iii. c. 9.

2064He was one of the companions of Ulysses, fabled by Homer and Ovid to have been transformed by Circe into a swine.

2065Μυρσίνηwas its Greek name.

2066See B. xxv. c. 59.

2067See B. xii. c.2. Ovid, Fasti, B. iv. l. 15,et seq., says that Venus concealed herself from the gaze of the Satyrs behind this tree.

2068Either this story is untrue, or we have a right to suspect that some underhand agency was employed for the purpose of imposing on the superstitious credulity of the Roman people.

2069Or Social War. See B. ii c. 85.

2070Near the altar of Consus, close to the meta of the Circus.

2071De Re Rust. c. 8.

2072The so-called wild myrtle does not in reality belong to the genus Myrtus.

2073See B. xxiii. c. 83; the Ruscus aculeatus of the family of the Asparagea.

2074The common myrtle, Myrtus communis of the naturalists.

2075Or Roman myrtle, a variety of the Myrtus communis.

2076The “six row” myrtle. Fée thinks that it belongs to the Myrtus angustifolia Bœtica of Bauhin.

2077De Re Rust. 125.

2078See B. xxiii. c. 81.

2079A new proof, as Fée remarks, that the ancients had peculiar notions of their own, as to the flavour of wine; myrtle berries, he says, would impart to wine a detestable aromatic flavour.

2080“Saccis:” the strainer being made of cloth. See B. xiv. c.28.

2081They would be of no assistance whatever, and this statement is entirely fictitious.

2082He may possibly mean hernia.

2083In addition to all those particulars, he might have stated that the Lares, or household gods, were crowned with myrtle, and that it was not allowed to enter the Temple of Bona Dea.

2084A.U.C.251.

2085See the Notes to c.35of this Book.

2086Because the enemy would be less likely to envy us a bloodless triumph.

2087He disdained the more humble myrtle crown, and intrigued successfully with the Senate to allow him to wear a wreath of laurel.

2088The Senate refused him a triumph; and he accordingly celebrated one on the Alban Mount,B.C.231. Paulus Diaconus says that his reason for wearing a myrtle crown was his victory over the Corsicans on the Myrtle Plains, though where they were, or what victory is alluded to, is not known.

2089The brother of Valerius Publicola.

2090We learn from two passages in Ovid that the laurel was suspended over the gates of the emperors. This, as Fée remarks, was done for two reasons: because it was looked upon as a protection against lightning, and because it was considered an emblem of immortality.

2091De Re Rust. 133.

2092Or “laurel of Apollo:” it was into this tree that Daphne was fabled to have been changed. See Ovid’s Met. B. i. l. 557,et seq.

2093Cato, De Re Rust. c. 121, tells us that this cake was made of fine wheat, must, anise, cummin, suet, cheese, and scraped laurel sprigs. Laurel leaves were placed under it when baked. This mixture was considered a light food, good for the stomach!

2094At the Pythian Games celebrated there.

2095Meaning that it curves at the edge, something like a pent-house.

2096Or tine tree, the Viburnum tinus of Linnæus, one of the caprifolia. It is not reckoned as one of the laurels, though it has many of the same characteristics.

2097Regia.

2098The barren laurel of the triumphs was the Laurus nobilis of Linnæus, which has only male flowers.

2099The Laurus vulgaris folio undulato of the ParisianHortus, Fée says.

2100Not a laurel, nor yet a dicotyledon, Fée says, but one of the Asparagea, probably the Ruscus hypoglossum of Linnæus, sometimes known, however, as the Alexandrian laurel.

2101Or “eunuch” laurel; a variety, probably, of the Laurus nobilis.

2102The “ground laurel:” according to Sprengel, this is the Ruscus racemosus of Linnæus. See B. xxiv. c. 81.

2103From Alexandria in Troas: the Ruscus hypophyllum of Linnæus, it is supposed.

2104“The tongue below.” This, Fée justly says, would appear to be a more appropriate name for the taxa, mentioned above.

2105From the berry being attached to the leaf.

2106“The thrower out from below,” perhaps.

2107Sprengel thinks that it is the Clematis vitalba of Linnæus. Fuchsius identities it with the Daphne laureola of Linnæus; and Fée thinks it may be either that or the Daphne mezereum of Linnæus.

2108“Crown of Alexander.”

2109Curiously enough, it is generally considered now more suggestive of war than of peace.

2110The despatches were wrapped in laurel leaves.

2111Optimus Maximus.

2112L. Junius Brutus, the nephew of Tarquin. Pliny alludes to the message sent to Delphi, for the purpose of consulting the oracle on a serpent being seen in the royal palace.

2113He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should reign at Rome after Tarquin; upon which she answered, “He who first kisses his mother;” on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the ground, and kissed the earth, the mother of all.

2114A mere absurdity; the same has been said of the beech, and with equal veracity.

2115He makes a distinction between “altar” and “ara” here. The former was the altar of the superior Divinities, the latter of the superior and inferior as well.

2116The crackling of the laurel is caused by efforts of the essential oil to escape from the parenchyma or cellular tissue of the leaf, which it breaks with considerable violence when burning.

2117Nervorum. See B. xxiii. c. 80.

2118Suetonius, c. 66, confirms this. Fée says that the same superstition still exists in some parts of France. See B. ii. c. 56.

2119“The Poultry.”

2120See c.39of this Book.

2121See B. xxxi. c. 3. As Poinsinet remarks, this is not strictly true; the name “Vinucius” most probably came from “vinea,” a vineyard. Numerous names were derived also from seeds and vegetables; Piso, Cicero, and Lactuca, for instance, among a host of others. “Scipio,” too, means a “walking-stick.”

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