Chapter 535

790A famous astronomer, a native of Chios. He is said to have claimed the discovery of the obliquity of the Ecliptic.

791Probably Zenon of Elea, one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. All of his works had perished at a very early period.

792An Athenian astronomer, the friend and assistant of Meton, about 430B.C.

793An astronomer mentioned by Censorinus, as having corrected the intercalation of Cleostratus. Nothing further appears to be known of him.

794For Hecatæus of Miletus, see B. iv. For Hecatæus of Abdera, see B. vi.

795See end of B. iv.

796See end of B. ii.

797See end of B. ii.

798A native of Soli, or else Tarsus, in Cilicia. He was the author of two Greek astronomical poems which have come down to us. He flourished aboutB.C.270.

799Nothing can be said of him with any degree of historical certainty. By the Persians he was called Zerdusht, and was said to have been the founder of the Magian religion. There were several works in Greek bearing his name, but which, no doubt, were forgeries of a later age than that usually assigned to him.

800He is mentioned in c. 70 of this Book, as writing a letter to Antiochus, king of Syria; but nothing further seems to be known of him.

801More particularly in B. xvii. cc. 2 and 3, and B. xviii. cc. 57-75.

802The Linum usitatissimum of Linnæus.

803What would he have said to the application of the powers of steam, and the electric telegraph?

804Possibly Galerius Trachalus, ConsulA.D.68, a relation of Galeria Fundana, the wife of the Emperor Vitellius.

805Governor of Egypt in the reign of Nero,A.D.55. He is mentioned by Seneca, Quæst. Nat. B. iv. c. 2, and is supposed to have written a work on Egypt and his journeys in that country.

806Or, as Sillig suggests, “after ill treatment such as this, that it arrives at the sea.” The passage is evidently defective.

807In B. vii. c. 57. He alludes to Dædalus.

808He probably has in view here the imprecation uttered by Horace:—“Illi robur, et æs triplexCirca pectus erat, qui fragilem truciCommisit pelago ratem.”—Odes, i. 3.At the present day hemp forms a material part in the manufacture of sails. In addition to flax, the ancients employed broom, rushes, leather, and various skins of animals for the purpose.

808He probably has in view here the imprecation uttered by Horace:—

“Illi robur, et æs triplexCirca pectus erat, qui fragilem truciCommisit pelago ratem.”—Odes, i. 3.

“Illi robur, et æs triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci

Commisit pelago ratem.”—Odes, i. 3.

At the present day hemp forms a material part in the manufacture of sails. In addition to flax, the ancients employed broom, rushes, leather, and various skins of animals for the purpose.

809In c. 76.

810On the contrary, as Fée observes, the cultivation of flax is attended with the greatest difficulties.

811See B. xvii. c. 7. Virgil says, Georg. i. 77, “Urit enim lini campum seges”—but in the sense, as Fée remarks, ofexhausting, notscorchingthe soil.

812A light soil, and well manured, is usually employed for the purpose. Columella, B. ii. c. 10, recommends a rich, moist soil. It is sown in March or April, and is gathered, according to the season, from June to September.

813Though rapid in its growth, there are many vegetable productions that grow more rapidly.

814This was the time for sowing it with the Romans, though in some countries, at the present day, it is sown so late as the autumn.

815In B. xviii. c. 72, he has spoken of this method of gathering vegetable productions as injurious to the soil, by withdrawing its natural juices.

816“Censentur hoc reditu?” There is little doubt that the Gauls, like their German neighbours, cultivated flax for the purposes of female dress, and not mainly for the manufacture of sails.

817“Quod vocant inane.” He implies that the boundless space of ocean on the Western coasts of Gaul was useless for any purposes of navigation.

818See B. iv. c. 33.

819See B. iv. c. 33.

820See B. xxxiv. c. 48.

821See B. iv. c. 31.

822A family of the Atilia gens.

823It was, and is still to some extent, a prevalent opinion, that the humidity of caves under-ground is favourable to the manufacture of tissues of hemp and flax.

824In Spain. Sec B. i. c. 1, and B. iii. c. 4.

825Cluvier takes this place to be the same with Litubium in Liguria, mentioned by Livy, B. xxxii.

826“Lanugo.” This is not generally looked upon as a merit in linen, at the present day.

827Now Tarragona. See B. iii. c. 4.

828“Carbasus.” This was probably the Spanish name originally for fine flax, and hence came to signify the cambrics, or fine linen tissues made of it. It seems, however, to have afterwards been extended to all kinds of linen tissues, as we find the name given indifferently to linen garments, sail-cloth, and awnings for the theatres.

829See B. iii. c. 4.

830“Sætas ceu per ferri aciem vincunt.” This passage is probably in a mutilated state.

831There must either be some corruption in the text, or else Pliny must have been mistaken. Nets such as these could have been of no possible use in taking a wild boar.

832See B. iv. c. 33. Now Querci, the chief town of which is Cahors.

833“Culcitæ.”

834“Tomenta.”

835Exactly corresponding to our “paillasse,” a “bed of straw.”

836This is doubtful, though at the same time it is a well-known fact that the Egyptian flax grows to the greatest size. Hasselquist speaks of it attaining a height of fifteen feet.

837Our cotton, the Gossypium arboreum of Linnæus. See B. xii. c. 21. The termsxylon,byssus, andgossypium, must be regarded as synonymous, being applied sometimes to the plant, sometimes to the raw cotton, and sometimes to the tissues made from it.Gossypiumwas probably the barbarous name of the cotton tree, andbyssusperhaps a corruption of its Hebrew name.

838Probably the Arundo donax of modern botanists. See B. xvi. c. 66.

839Fée says, that the people of Pisa, at the present day, soak the stalks of broom, and extract therefrom a thread, of which cords and coarse stuffs are made.

840In B. xii. c. 21. He seems there to speak of the cotton-tree, though Fée suggests that he may possibly allude to the “Bombax pentandrum” of Linnæus.

841It is the mucilage of the perisperm that is so useful in medicine. As an article of food, the farina of linseed is held in no esteem whatever. In times of scarcity, attempts have been made to mix it with flour or meal, but the result has been found to be heavy and indigestible, and has caused, it is said, the death even of those who have eaten of it in considerable quantities.

842There are various other methods employed of dressing flax at the present day; but they are all of them long and tedious.

843And not feminine or servile.

844“Vivum.”

845He evidently considers asbestus, or amianthus, to be a vegetable, and not a mineral production. It is, in reality, a mineral, with long flexible filaments, of a silky appearance, and is composed of silica, magnesia, and lime. The wicks of the inextinguishable lamps of the middle ages, the existence of which was an article of general belief, were said to be made of asbestus. Paper and lace, even, have been made of it in modern times.

846“Nascitur.” In the year 1702 there was found near the Nævian Gate, at Rome, a funereal urn, in which there was a skull, calcined bones, and other ashes, enclosed in a cloth of asbestus, of a marvellous length. It is still preserved in the Vatican.

847On the contrary, it is found in the Higher Alps in the vicinity of the Glaciers, in Scotland, and in Siberia, even.

848Signifying “inextinguishable,” fromἀ, “not,” andσβέννυμι, “to extinguish.” See B. xxxvii. c. 54.

849See end ofthis Book.

850He evidently alludes to cotton fabrics under this name. See Note837to c. 2 of this Book.

851Pausanias, in his Eliaca, goes so far as to say, that byssus was found only in Elis, and nowhere else. Judging from the variable temperature of the climate, it is very doubtful, Fée says, if cotton was grown thereat all. Arrian, Apollonius, and Philostratus say that the tree which produced thebyssushad the leaves of the willow, and the shape of the poplar, characteristics which certainly do not apply to the cotton-tree.

852Impure oxide of metals, collected from the chimneys of smelting-houses. Fée says that Pliny on this occasion is right.

853In B. xx. c. 79, he speaks of the “heraclion” poppy, supposed by some of the commentators to be identical with the one mentioned here.

854“Vestium insaniam.”

855“Postea.” Sillig would reject this word, as being a corruption, and not consistent with fact, Catulus having lived before the time of Cleopatra. He suggests that the reading should be “Populo Romano ea in theatris spectanti umbram fecere.” “Linen, too, has provided a shade for the Roman people, when viewing the spectacles of the theatre.” Lucretius, B. iv. l. 73,et seq., speaks of these awnings as being red, yellow, and iron grey.

856“Carbasina.” Cambric.

857The cavædium is generally supposed to have been the same as the “atrium,” the large inner apartment, roofed over, with the exception of an opening in the middle, which was called the “compluvium,” or “impluvium,” over which the awning here mentioned was stretched. Here the master of the house received his visitors and clients.

858White would be much preferable to red for this purpose.

859Il. ii. ll. 529 and 830.

860Il. viii. l. 63.

861Il. ii. l. 135. See B. xxiv. c. 40.

862The Stipa tenacissima of Linnæus; a kind of broom, called “Esparto” by the Spaniards.

863Although, as Fée says, this is still the fact, it is a plant which would readily admit of cultivation. Varro, however, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 23, speaks of it in conjunction with hemp, flax, and rushes, as being sown.

864This kind, Fée thinks, may possibly have been identical with the Spartum Lygeum of Linnæus, false esparto, or alvarde.

865At the present day it is only in the provinces on the Mediterranean that spartum is found; the other provinces producing nothing but alvarde.

866It is still used in the southern parts of Spain for the same purposes.

867The shoes now made of it are known as “espartenas” and “alpargatas.”

868It is not dangerous in itself, but is too tough to be a favourite article of food with cattle.

869Fifteenth of May and thirteenth of June.

870The same word,σχοῖνος, signifying both a “rush” and a “rope.”

871Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 13. Athenæus, B. ii., mentions it also.

872Fée is at a loss to identify this plant, but considers it quite clear that it is not the same with the Eriophorum augustifolium of Linnæus, a cyperaceous plant, of which the characteristics are totally different. Dodonæus, however, was inclined to consider them identical.

873On the contrary, Theophrastusdoesmention it, in the Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 8, and speaks of it as having a bark composed of several tunics or membranes.

874In B. xiii. c. 13, and B. xv. c. 1.

875“Tuber.” The Tuber cibarium of Linnæus, the black truffle; and probably the grey truffle, the Tuber griseum.

876This callous secretion of the earth, or corticle, is, as Fée says, a sort of hymenium, formed of vesicles, which, as they develope themselves, are found to contain diminutive truffles. Pliny is wrong in saying that the truffle forms neither cleft nor protuberance, as the exact contrary is the fact.

877Haller speaks of truffles weighing as much as fourteen pounds. Valmont de Bomare speaks of a truffle commonly found in Savoy, which attains the weight of a pound.

878Those of Africa are in general similar to those found in Europe, but there is one peculiar to that country, possibly the same that is mentioned in the following Chapter under the name of “misy.”

879“Jura reddenti.”

880It is really propagated by spores, included in sinuous chambers in the interior; but, notwithstanding the attempts that have been made, it has never yet been cultivated with any degree of success. In c. 13, Pliny seems to recognize the possibility of its multiplication by germs, where he says that its formation is attributed by some to water.

881Fée takes this to be the Tuber niveum of Desfontaines, the snow-white truffle. It is globular and somewhat piriform, grows to the size of a walnut, and sometimes of an orange, and is said to be most delicate eating.

882These truffles or morels do not appear to have been identified.

883Juvenal alludes to this absurd notion, Sat. v. l. 116. “The long wished-for thunder will provide a more ample repast.”

884Theophrastus, as quoted by Athenæus, B. ii. speaks of this.

885“Peziza” was a name given by the ancients to a kind of cupuliform mushroom; in which, however, we cannot recognize the “pezica” of Pliny. Some writers think that this was the same as the lycoperdon and geastrum of botanists, our puff-ball: while others take it to be the morel, the Morchella esculenta, Sprengel in the number. Fée is inclined to be of opinion that an edible mushroom is meant, but is quite at a loss to identify it.

886Possibly the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus; or, according to some, the Thapsia silphium of Viviani,Flor. Lib.It was a plant common, according to ancient writers, to Syria, Armenia, Media, and Libya; but it was the produce of this last country, probably, that afforded the juice or gum resin here mentioned as “laser,” and so highly esteemed by the ancients, as forming a component part of their perfumes. Fée is inclined to think that the Laserpitium here spoken of was the Thapsia silphium, and to reject the more general opinion that it is identical with the Ferula asafœtida. Pliny has probably caused some confusion by blending the description of other writers with that given by Theophrastus, each having in view a different plant. Indeed, whatever the Laserpitium or Silphium of other countries may have been, it is not improbable that the odoriferous plant of Cyrenaica was not identical with the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus. The foliage of the Thapsia silphium is exactly similar to that of the Laserpitium as depicted on medals of Cyrenaica, still extant. We learn from Littré, that Dr. Guyon showed, in 1842, to the Académie des Sciences, a plant which the Arabs of Algeria employ as a purgative, and which they callbonnefa. It is the Thapsia Garganica of Desfontaines, and is considered by Guyon to be identical with the Silphium of the ancients.

887See B. xxii. c.48. In the “Rudens” of Plautus, the scene of which is near Cyrene, frequent allusion is made to the growth of laserpitium there, and the preparation and export of the resin, as forming the staple article of commerce.

888Scribonius Largus, who lived in the time of Tiberius, speaks of using in a prescription laser of Cyrenaica, “if it can be met with;” “si poterit inveniri.”

889“In spem nascentis.”

890Fée remarks that Pliny has not found this absurd story in any of the works from which he has compiled his account, but that it is entirely his own.

891This was probably the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus.

892See B. xx. c.75.

893A.U.C.661.

894Fée remarks, that if Pliny here alludes to Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 3, he has mistaken his meaning.

895This, as Fée says, could hardly apply to the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus, the stalk of it being extremely acrid, and the juice fetid in the highest degree.

896“Vitia his omnibus.” The reading here is probably corrupt.

897“Root-juice,” and “stalk-juice.”

898Poinsinet fancies that this name means “staff of the Magi.”

899Or “laser,” these names being indifferently applied to the gum-resin.

900The whole of this paragraph has been borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. iii.

901Sprengel takes this to be the Laserpitium ferulaceum of Linnæus, but Fée thinks it is more than doubtful if the identity can be established.

902From Theophrastus. Dioscorides says, on the other hand, that it grows in Libya.

903From Littré we learn that M. Fraas has suggested that the Magydaris and Laserpitium are possibly the Ferula Tingitana, and the Ptychotis verticillata of Decandolle, which last he has found upon high mountains in the lower region of pines, on Mount Parnassus, among others.

904See B. xxii. cc.48,49.

905The Rubia tinctorum of Linnæus.

906Dioscorides speaks of the madder of Ravenna as being the most esteemed. It is much cultivated at the present day in the South of France, Holland, and the Levant. That of Lille enjoys a high reputation.

907It is covered with bristly hairs, or rather, fine, hooked teeth. There is, however, no resemblance whatever between it and ervilia or orobus, the fitch.

908B. xxiv. c. 56.

909Or “little root;” though, in reality, as Pliny says, it had a large root. Some writers have supposed, that by this name is meant the Reseda luteola of Linnæus, the “dyer’s weed” of the moderns; but neither Pliny nor any of the Greek writers mention the Radicula as being used for dyeing. Some, again, identify it with the Gypsophila struthium of Linnæus, without sufficient warranty, however, as Fée thinks.

910The Gypsophila struthium grows in Spain, and possibly, Fée says, in other countries. Linnæus has “pretended,” he says, that the Spaniards still employ the root and stalk of the Gypsophila for the same purposes as the ancients did the same parts of the Radicula. He himself, however, though long resident in Spain, had never observed such to be the fact.

911This description, Fée says, does not correspond with that of the Gypsophila struthium, the stalk of which does not at all resemble that of the ferulaceous plants, and the leaf is quite different in appearance from that of the olive.

912As Fée observes, by the word “hortus” the Romans understood solely the “vegetable” or “kitchen-garden;” the pleasure garden being generally denominated “horti.”

913See B. v. c. 1.

914A fabulous king of Phœnicia, probably, whose story was afterwards transferred, with considerable embellishments, to the Grecian mythology. Adonis is supposed to have been identical with the Thammuz of Scripture, mentioned by Ezekiel, viii. 14, where he speaks of the “women weeping for Thammuz.” Hardouin considers him to have been a Syrian deity, identical with the Moon.

915Celebrated by Homer, Od. B. vi. and xiii.

916“Alio volumine.” As no further mention is made by Pliny of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, it is most probable that he contemplated giving a description of them in another work, an intention which he did not live to realize.

917See further on this subject, c.53of the present Book.

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