Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter.
{21.} L [68] We have not yet touched on the marsh-plants nor the shrubs that grow by rivers. But before we leave Egypt we shall also describe the nature of papyrus, since our civilisation or at all events our records depend very largely on the employment of paper. [69] According to Marcus Varro we owe even the discovery of paper to the victory of Alexander the Great, when he founded Alexandria in Egypt, before which time paper was not used. First of all people used to write on palm-leaves and then on the bark of certain trees, and afterwards folding sheets of lead began to be employed for official muniments, and then also sheets of linen or tablets of wax for private documents; for we find in Homer { Iliad 6.168 } that the use of writing-tablets existed even before the Trojan period, but when he was writing even the land itself which is now thought of as Egypt did not exist as such, while now paper grows in the Sebennytic and Saitic nomes of Egypt, the land having been subsequently heaped up by the Nile, [70] inasmuch as he wrote { Od. 4.353 } that the island of Pharos, which is now joined to Alexandria by a bridge, was twenty-four hours' distance by sailing-ship from the land. Subsequently, also according to Varro, when owing to the rivalry between King Ptolemy and King Eumenes about their libraries Ptolemy suppressed the export of paper, parchment was invented at Pergamum; and afterwards the employment of the material on which the immortality of human beings depends spread indiscriminately.
{22.} L [71] Papyrus then grows in the swamps of Egypt or else in the sluggish waters of the Nile where they have overflowed and lie stagnant in pools not more than about three feet in depth; it has a sloping root as thick as a man's arm, and tapers gracefully up with triangular sides to a length of not more than about 15 feet, ending in a head like a thyrsus; it has no seed, and is of no use except that the flowers are made into wreaths for statues of the gods. [72] The roots are employed by the natives for timber, and not only to serve as firewood but also for making various utensils and vessels; indeed the papyrus itself is plaited to make boats, and the inner bark is woven into sail-cloth and matting, and also cloth, as well as blankets and ropes. It is also used as chewing-gum, both in the raw state and when boiled, though only the juice is swallowed.
[73] Papyrus also grows in Syria on the borders of the lake round which grows the scented reed already mentioned, and King Antigonus would only allow ropes made from this Syrian papyrus to be used in his navy, the employment of esparto not yet having become general. It has recently been realised that papyrus growing in the Euphrates near Babylon can also be used in the same way for paper; nevertheless up to the present the Parthians prefer to embroider letters upon cloths.
{23.} L [74] The process of making paper from papyrus is to split it with a needle into very thin strips made as broad as possible, the best quality being in the centre of the plant, and so on in the order of its splitting up. The first quality used to be called 'hieratic paper' and was in early times devoted solely to books connected with religion, but in a spirit of flattery it was given the name of Augustus, just as the second best was called 'Livia paper' after his consort, and thus the name 'hieratic' came down to the third class. [75] The next quality had been given the name of 'amphitheatre' paper, from the place of its manufacture. This paper was taken over by the clever workshop of Fannius at Rome, and its texture was made finer by a careful process of insertion, so that it was changed from common paper into one of first-class quality, and received the name of the maker; but the paper of this kind that did not have this additional treatment remained in its own class as amphitheatre paper. [76] Next to this is the Saitic paper named from the town where it is produced in the greatest abundance, being made from shavings of inferior quality, and the Taeneotic, from a neighbouring place, made from material still nearer the outside skin, in the case of which we reach a variety that is sold by mere weight and not for its quality. As for what is called 'emporitic' paper, it is no good for writing but serves to provide covers for documents and wrappers for merchandise, and consequently takes its name from the Greek word for a merchant. After this comes the actual papyrus, and its outermost layer, which resembles a rush and is of no use even for making ropes except those used in water.
[77] Paper of all kinds is 'woven' on a board moistened with water from the Nile, muddy liquid supplying the effect of glue. First an upright layer is smeared on to the table, using the full length of papyrus available after the trimmings have been cut off at both ends, and afterwards cross strips complete the lattice-work. The next step is to press it in presses, and the sheets are dried in the sun and then joined together, the next strip used always diminishing in quality down to the worst of all. There are never more than twenty sheets to a roll.
{24.} L [78] There is a great difference in the breadth of the various kinds of paper: the best is thirteen digits wide { 24 cm }, the hieratic eleven digits wide { 20 cm }, the Fannian measures ten digits { 18½ cm }and the amphitheatre paper nine digits { 16½ cm }, while the Saitic is still fewer digits across and is not as wide as the mallet used in making it, as the emporitic kind is so narrow that it does not exceed six digits { 11 cm }. Other points looked at in paper are fineness, stoutness, whiteness and smoothness. The status of best quality was altered by the emperor Claudius. [79] The reason was that the thin paper of the period of Augustus was not strong enough to stand the friction of the pen, and moreover as it let the writing show through there was a fear of a smudge being caused by what was written on the back, and the great transparency of the paper had an unattractive look in other respects. Consequently the foundation was made of leaves of second quality and the woof or cross layer of leaves of the first quality. [80] Claudius also increased the width of the sheet, making it a foot across. There were also sheets a cubit across called 'macrocola,' but examination detected a defect in them, as tearing off a single strip damaged several pages. On this account Claudius paper has come to be preferred to all other kinds, although the Augustus kind still holds the field for correspondence; but Livia paper, having no quality of a first-class kind, but being entirely second class, has retained its position.
{25.} L [81] Roughness is smoothed out with a piece of ivory or a shell, but this makes the lettering apt to fade, as owing to the polish so given the paper does not take the ink so well, but has a shinier surface. The damping process if carelessly applied often causes difficulty in writing at first, and it can be detected by a blow with the mallet, or even by the musty smell if the process has been rather carelessly carried out. Spottiness also may be detected by the eye, but a bad porous strip found inserted in the middle of the pasted joins, owing to the sponginess of the papyrus, sucks up the ink and so can scarcely be detected except when the ink of a letter runs: so much opportunity is there for cheating. The consequence is that another task is added to the process of paper-weaving.
{26.} L [82] The common kind of paste for paper is made fine flour of the best quality mixed with boiling water, with a very small sprinkle of vinegar; for carpenter's paste and gum make too brittle a compound. But a more careful process is to strain the crumb of leavened bread in boiling water; this method requires the smallest amount of paste at the seams, and produces a paper softer than even linen. But all the paste used ought to be exactly a day old - not more nor yet less. Afterwards the paper is beaten thin with a mallet and run over with a layer of paste, and then again has its creases removed by pressure and is flattened out with the mallet. [83] This process may enable records to last a long time; at the house of the poet and most distinguished citizen Pomponius Secundus I have seen documents in the hand of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus written nearly two hundred years ago; while as for autographs of Cicero, of the deified Augustus, and of Virgil, we see them constantly.
{27.} L [84] There are important instances forthcoming that make against the opinion of Marcus Varro in regard to the history of paper. Cassius Hemina, a historian of great antiquity, has stated in his 'Annals', Book IV, that the secretary Gnaeus Terentius, when digging over his land on the Janiculan, turned up a coffer that had contained the body of Numa, who was king at Rome, [85] and that in the same coffer were found some books of his - this was in the consulship of Publius Cornelius Cethegus, son of Lucius, and of Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, son of Quintus { 181 B.C. }, dating 535 years after the accession of Numa; and the historian says that the books were made of paper, which makes the matter still more remarkable, because of their having lasted in a hole in the ground, and consequently on a point of such importance I will quote the words of Hemina himself: [86] 'Other people wondered how those books could have lasted so long, but Terentius's explanation was that about in the middle of the coffer there had been a square stone tied all round with waxed cords, and that the three books had been placed on the top of this stone; and he thought this position was the reason why they had not decayed; and that the books had been soaked in citrus-oil, and he thought that this was why they were not moth-eaten. These books contained the philosophical doctrines of Pythagoras' - and Hemina said that the books had been burnt by the praetor Quintus Petilius [because they were writings of philosophy]. [87] The same story is recorded by Piso the former censor in his 'Commentaries', Book I, but he says that there were seven volumes of pontifical law and the same number of Pythagorean philosophy; while Tuditanus in Book XIII says that there were twelve volumes of the Decrees of Numa; Varro himself says that there were seven volumes of 'Antiquities of Man', and Antias in his Second Book speaks of there having been twelve volumes 'On Matters Pontifical' written in Latin and the same number in Greek containing 'Doctrines of Philosophy'; Antias also quotes in Book III a Resolution of the Senate deciding that these volumes were to be burnt. [88] It is however universally agreed that the Sibyl brought three volumes to Tarquin the Proud, of which two were burnt by herself while the third was destroyed in the burning of the Capitol in the Sullan crisis. Moreover the Mucianus who was three times consul has stated that recently, when governor of Lycia, he had read in a certain temple a letter of Sarpedon written on paper at Troy - which seems to me even more remarkable if even when Homer was writing, Egypt did not yet exist: otherwise why, if paper was already in use, is it known to have been the custom to write on folding tablets made of lead or sheets of linen, or why has Homer stated { Iliad 6.168 } that even in Lycia itself wooden tablets, and not letters, were given to Bellerophon? [89] This commodity also is liable to dearth, and as early as the principate of Tiberius a shortage of paper led to the appointment from the senate of umpires to supervise its distribution, as otherwise life was completely upset.
{28.} L [90] Ethiopia, which is on the borders of Egypt, has virtually no remarkable trees except the wool-tree, like the one described among the trees of India and Arabia. However, the Ethiopian variety has a much woollier consistency, and a larger pod, like that of a pomegranate, and also the trees themselves resemble each other. Beside the wool-tree there are also palms of the kind which we have described { 13.28 }. The trees and the scented forests of the islands round the coast of Ethiopia have been spoken of when those islands were mentioned { 6.198 }.
{29.} L [91] Mount Atlas is said to possess a forest of a remarkable character, about which we have spoken { 5.14 }. Adjoining Mount Atlas is Mauretania, which produces a great many citrus-trees - and the table-mania which the ladies use as a retort to the men against the charge of extravagance in pearls. [92] There till exists a table that belonged to Marcus Cicero for which with his slender resources and, what is more surprising, at that date, he paid half-a-million sestertii ; and also one is recorded as belonging to Gallus Asinius that cost a million. Also two hanging tables were sold at auction by King Juba, of which one fetched 1,200,000 sestertii and the other a little less. A table that was lately destroyed in a fire came down from the Cethegi and had changed hands at 1,300,000 sestertiithe price of a large estate, supposing somebody preferred to devote so large a sum to the purchase of landed property. [93] The size of the largest tables hitherto has been: one made by Ptolemy, king of Mauretania, out of two semicircular slabs of wood joined together, 4½ ft. in diameter and ¼ ft. thick - and the invisibility of the join makes the table more marvellous as a work of art than it could possibly have been if a product of nature - and a single slab bearing the name of Nomius a freedman of the Emperor which is 3 ft. 11¼ in. across and 11¼ in. thick. [94] Under this head it seems proper to include a table that belonged to the Emperor Tiberius which was 4 ft. 2¼ in. across, and 1½ in. thick all over, but was only covered with a veneer of citrus-wood, although the one belonging to his freedman Nomius was so sumptuous. [95] The material is an excrescence of the root, and is very greatly admired when it grows entirely underground, and so is more uncommon than the knobs that grow above ground, on the branches as well as on the trunk; and the timber bought at so high a price is in reality a disease of the trees, the size and the roots of which can be judged from the circular tabletops. In foliage, scent and the appearance of the trunk these trees resemble the female cyprus, which is also a forest tree. A mountain called Ancorarius in Mauretania Citerior provided the most celebrated citrus-wood, but the supply is now exhausted.
{30.} L [96] The outstanding merit of citrus-wood tables is to have wavy marks forming a vein or else little spirals. The former marking produces a longish pattern and is consequently called 'tiger-wood', while the latter gives a twisted pattern and consequently slabs of that sort are called panther-tables. Also some have wavy crinkled markings, which are more esteemed if they resemble the eyes in a peacock's tail. [97] Besides the kinds previously mentioned, great esteem, though coming after these, belongs to those veined with a thick cluster of what look like grains, these slabs being consequently called parsley-wood, from the resemblance. But the highest value of all resides in the colour of the wood, the colour of meed being the most favoured, shining with the wine that is proper to it. The next point is size: nowadays tables made of whole trunks are admired, or several trunks mortised together in one table.
[98] The faults in a table are woodiness - that is the name given to a dull patternless uniformity in the timber, or uniformity arranged like the leaves of a plane-tree, and also to a grain resembling the veining or colouring of the holm-oak - and to flaws or hairy lines resembling flaws, a fault to which heat and wind have rendered the timber particularly liable; next comes a colour running across the wood in a black streak like a lamprey and marked with irregular raven-scratchings as on a poppy and in general rather approaching black, or blotches of various colours. [99] The natives bury the timber in the ground while still green, giving it a coat of wax; but carpenters lay it in heaps of corn for periods of a week with intervals of a week between, and it is surprising how much its weight is reduced by this process. Also wreckage from ships has recently shown that this timber is dried by the action of sea water, and solidified with a hardness that resists decay, no other method producing this result more powerfully. Citrus-wood tables are best kept and polished by rubbing with the dry hand, especially just after a bath; and they are not damaged by spilt wine, as having been created for the purpose of wine-tables.
[100] Few things that supply the apparatus of a more luxurious life rank with this tree, and consequently it seems desirable to dwell on it for a little as well. It was known even to Homer - the Greek name for it being thyon, otherwise thya. Well, Homer has recorded { Od. 5.60 } its being burnt among unguents as one of the luxuries of Circe, whom he meant to be understood as a goddess - those who take the word thyon to mean perfumes being greatly in error, especially as in the same verse he says that cedar and larch were burnt at the same time, which shows that he was only speaking of trees. Already [101] Theophrastus, who wrote immediately after the period of Alexander the Great, about A.U.C. 440 { 314 B.C. }, assigns a high rank to this tree, stating that it was recorded that the flooring of the old temples used to be made of it and that its timber when used in roofed buildings is virtually everlasting, being proof against all causes of decay; [102] and he says that no wood is more marked with veins than the root, and that no products made of any other material are more valuable. The finest citrus, he says, is round the Temple of Hammon, but it also grows in the interior of Cyrenaica. He makes no mention, however, of tables made of citrus-wood, and indeed there is no older record of one before that of the time of Cicero, which proves their novelty.
{31.} L [103] There is another tree with the same name, bearing fruit which some people abhor for its scent and bitter taste while other people are fond of it; this wood is also used for decorating houses, but it does not need further description.
{32.} L [104] Africa also, where it faces in our direction, produces a remarkable tree, the lotus, called in the vernacular celthis, which also has been naturalised in Italy, though it has been altered by the change of soil. The finest lotus is found round the Syrtes and the district of the Nasamones. It is the size of a pear, although Cornelius Nepos states that it is a short fruit. The incisions in the leaf resemble those in the holm-oak, except that they are more numerous. There are several varieties of lotus, differing chiefly in their fruits. [105] This one is the size of a bean and saffron-coloured, but it changes colour several times before it is ripe, like grapes. It grows in thick clusters on the branches like myrtle-berries and not like cherries as it does in Italy; in its own country it is so sweet to eat that it has even given its name to a race of people and to a land which is too hospitable to strangers who come there, making them forget their native land. It is reported that chewing this lotus prevents gastric diseases. [106] The better kind has no stone inside it, those of the other variety having a kernel of a bony appearance. Also a wine is pressed from this fruit that resembles mead, which again according to Nepos will not keep for more than ten days; he states that the berries are chopped up with spelt and stored in casks for food. Indeed we are told that armies have been fed on this while marching to and fro through Africa. The wood is of a black colour, and is in demand for making melodious flutes, while out of the root are devised knife-handles and other short implements.
[107] This is the nature of the lotus-tree in Africa. But the same name also belongs to a herbaceous plant, as well as to a colewort in Egypt belonging to the class of marsh-plants. This springs up when the flood waters of the Nile retire; it resembles a bean in its stalk and in its leaves, which grow in large, thick clusters, although they are shorter and more slender than the leaves of a bean. The fruit grows in the head of the plant and resembles the fruit of the poppy in its indentations and in every other way; it contains grains like millet-seeds. [108] The natives pile these heads in heaps to rot, and then separate the seeds by washing and dry them and crush them, and use them to make bread. There is a further remarkable fact reported, that when the sun sets these poppies shut up and fold their leaves round them, and at sunrise open again, this going on till they ripen and the flower, which is white, falls off. [109] A further point reported is that in the Euphrates both the head itself and the flower at the evening go on submerging till midnight, and disappear entirely into the depth so that they cannot be found even by plunging the hand in, and then return and by degrees straighten up again, and at sunrise come out of the water and open their flower, and still go on rising so that the flower is raised up quite a long way above the water. [110] The lotus has a root of the size of a quince, enclosed in a black skin like the shell of a chestnut; inside it has a white body, agreeable to eat raw but still more agreeable when boiled in water or roasted in the ashes. Its peelings are more useful than any other fodder for fattening pigs.
{33.} L [111] The region of Cyrenaica ranks the lotus below its own Christ's-thorn. This is more in the nature of a shrub, and its fruit is redder, and contains a kernel that is eaten by itself, as it is agreeable alone; it is improved by being dipped in wine, and moreover its juice improves wine. The interior of Africa as far as the Garamantes and the desert is covered with palms remarkable for their size and their luscious fruit, the most celebrated being in the neighbourhood of the temple of Ammon.
{34.} L [112] But the country in the neighbourhood of Carthage claims by the name of Punic apple what some call the pomegranate; this it has also split up into classes, by giving the name of apyrenum to the variety that lacks a woody kernel: the consistency of this is whiter than that of the others, and its pips have a more agreeable taste and the membranes enclosing them are not so bitter; but in other respects these apples have a special structure resembling the cells in a honeycomb, which is common to all that have a kernel. [113] Of these there are five kinds, the sweet, the sour, the mixed, the acid and the vinous; those of Samos and of Egypt are divided into the red-leaved and the white-leaved varieties. The skin of the unripe fruit is specially used for dressing leather. The flower is called balaustium, and is serviceable for doctors and also for dyeing cloth; it has given its name to a special colour.
{35.} L [114] Shrubs growing in Asia and Greece are the epicactis, which others call emboline, with small leaves which taken in drink are an antidote against poisons, as those of the heath are against snakes, and the shrub that produces the grain of Cnidus, which some call flax, the name of the shrub itself being thymelaea, which others call chamelaea, others pyros achne, some cnestor, others cneorum. It resembles the oleaster, but has narrower leaves, which when chewed have a gummy consistency; it is the size of a myrtle, and has a seed of the colour and shape of spelt, which is only used for medicinal purposes.
{36.} L [115] The goat-shrub only grows in the island of Crete; it resembles the terebinth in seed as well as in other respects; the seed is reported to be very efficacious against arrow wounds. The same island also produces a goat-thorn, which has the root of the white thorn, and is much preferred to the goat-thorn growing in the country of the Medes or in Achaia; its price is 3 denarii per pound.
{37.} L [116] Asia also produces the goat-plant or scorpio, a thorn without leaves and with reddish branches, used for medicinal purposes: Italy also has the myrica, which is there called the tamarisk, and Achaia the wild brya; a remarkable property of the brya is that only the cultivated kind bears fruit; this resembles a gall-nut. In Syria and Egypt this shrub is abundant, and we give the name of unlucky wood to its timber; [117] yet some of the timbers of Greece are unluckier, for Greece grows a tree named the ostrys, another form of the name being ostrya, which grows by itself round rocks washed by water; it is like an ash in its bark and branches, and a pear in its leaf, though the leaves are a little longer and thicker and wrinkled with indentations running all across them; the seed resembles barley in colour as well as shape. The wood is hard and solid, and it is said that if it is brought into a house it causes difficulty in childbirth and painful deaths.
{38.} L [118] Equally unlucky is the tree on the island of Lesbos called the euonymus, which is not unlike the pomegranate tree - its leaves are between pomegranate and bay-leaves in size, but have the shape and soft texture of the leaf of the pomegranate - and which by the scent of its white blossom gives prompt warning of its pestilential qualities. It bears a pod like that of the sesame, with a coarse square-shaped grain inside it which is deadly for animals; and the leaf also has the same property, although sometimes an immediate evacuation of the bowels gives relief.
{39.} L [119] Alexander Cornelius mentions a tree called the lion-tree, the timber of which he says was used to build the Argo, which bears mistletoe resembling that on the oak, and which cannot be rotted by water or destroyed by fire, the same being the case with its mistletoe. This tree is, so far as I am aware, unknown to anyone else.
{40.} L [120] Andrachle is almost always rendered into Latin for the Greeks by the word 'purslain,' although purslain is a herbaceous plant and its Greek name is one letter different, andrachne: for the rest the andrachle is a forest tree, nor does it grow in level country. It resembles the arbutus, only it has a smaller leaf and is an evergreen; the bark, though not rough, might be supposed to have frozen round the tree, it has such a wretched appearance.
{41.} L [121] The sumach has a similar leaf, but is smaller in size. It has the peculiarity of clothing its fruit (which is called pappus) with downy fluff, a thing that occurs with no other tree. The apharce also resembles the andrachle, and like it bears twice a year; they produce a first crop of fruit just at the time when the grapes are beginning to ripen, and a second at the beginning of winter. What sort of fruit is produced on these two occasions is not reported.
{42.} L [122] It may be suitable to have the fennel giant mentioned among the exotics and assigned to the genus 'tree,' inasmuch as the structure of some plants, in the classification that we shall adopt, has the whole of the wood outside in place of bark and inside, in place of wood, a fungous pith like that of the elder, though some have an empty hollow inside like reeds. [123] This fennel grows in hot countries over sea; its stalk is divided by knotted joints. It has two varieties, one called in Greek narthex, which rises to some height, the other narthecia, which always grows low. From the joints shoot out very large leaves, the larger the nearer to the ground; but in other respects it has the same nature as the anise, and the fruit is similar. No shrub supplies a wood of lighter weight, and consequently it is easy to carry, and supplies walking-sticks to be used by old gentlemen.
{43.} L [124] The seed of the fennel giant has been called by some thapsia, but these people are mistaken, since the thapsia, though no doubt it is a giant fennel, is one of a peculiar kind, having the leaves of a fennel and a hollow stalk not exceeding the length of a walking-stick; the seed is like that of the giant fennel, but the root is white. When an incision is made in the thapsia milk oozes out, and when pounded it emits a sweet juice; even the bark is not thrown away. All these parts of the tree are poisons; in fact it is injurious even to those engaged in digging it up if the slightest current of air blows from the shrub in their direction: their bodies swell up, and their face is attacked by erysipelas - for which reason before beginning they grease it with a solution of wax. [125] The doctors however say that mixed with other ingredients the shrub is of use in treating certain diseases, and also for fox-mange, bruises and spottiness - as if there really were any lack of remedies, forcing them to take in hand new enormities! But they cloak their noisome expedient with excuses of that sort, and such is their impudence that they ask us to believe that poison is among the resources of science!
The thapsia of Africa is the most violent of all. Some people make an incision in the stalk during harvest-time and make a hollow in the root itself for the juice to collect in, and when it has dried take it away; [126] others pound the leaves and stalk and root in a mortar and after drying the juice hard in the sun cut it up into lozenges. The emperor Nero at the beginning of his reign gave this juice a famous advertisement, as when during his nocturnal escapades his face had sustained a number of bruises he smeared it with a mixture of thapsia, frankincense and wax and on the following day gave the lie to rumour by going about with a whole skin. It is a well-known fact that fire can be best kept alight in a fennel stalk, and that the fennels in Egypt are the best.
{44.} L [127] In Egypt also grows the caper-tree, a shrub with a rather hard wood; also its seed is well known as an article of food, and is usually gathered together with the stalk. Its foreign varieties should be avoided, inasmuch as the Arabian kind is poisonous and the African injures the gums, and that from Marmarica is injurious to the womb. Also the Apulian caper-tree produces vomiting and diarrhoea by causing flatulence in all the organs. Some persons call this shrub 'dog-brier,' others 'snakevine'.
{45.} L [128] The saripha growing on the banks of the Nile also belongs to the shrub class. It is about 3 cubits high and the thickness of a man's thumb; its foliage is that of the papyrus, and it is chewed in a similar manner. The root is highly rated in workshops for use as fuel, because of its hardness.
{46.} L [129] Also we must not leave out a plant that at Babylon is grown on thorn-bushes, because it will not live anywhere else - just as mistletoe grows on trees, but the plant in question will only grow on what is called the 'royal thorn.' It is a remarkable fact that it buds on the same day as it has been planted - this is done just at the rising of the Dog-star - and it very quickly takes possession of the whole of the tree. It is used in making spiced wine, and is cultivated for that purpose. This thorn also grows on the Long Walls at Athens.
{47.} L [130] There is also a shrub called cytisus, which has been remarkably praised by Amphilochus of Athens as a fodder for all kinds of cattle, and when dried for swine as well, and he guarantees a yearly return of 2,000 sestertii for an iugerum of it, even on only moderate soil. It serves the same purpose as vetch, but produces satiety more quickly, an animal being fattened by quite a moderate amount - so much so that beasts of burden fed on it refuse barley. No other fodder produces a larger quantity or a better quality of milk, and above everything as a medicine for cattle it renders them immune from all diseases. [131] He also recommends a potion made of cytisus dried and boiled in water to be given with wine to nursing women when their milk fails, and he says this will make the infants stronger and taller; also he advises giving it while in the green state to fowls, or if it has dried, after being steeped. Moreover, Democritus and Aristomachus promise that bees will never fail if there is cytisus available for them to feed on. [132] No other fodder is less expensive. It is sown when barley is, or in the spring, like leek, if the seed is used; or else the stalk is planted in autumn before the winter solstice. If sown the seed is soaked, or, if there is a shortage of rain, it is watered after sowing. When the plants are a cubit high they are replanted in a trench a foot deep. This planting is done through the equinoxes, while the shrub is still tender; it takes three years to mature, and it is cut at the spring equinox, when it has done flowering - a job that can be done very cheaply even by a boy or an old woman. [133] It is of a whitish colour to look at, and its appearance may be briefly described by saying that it looks like a trifoliated plant with a rather narrow leaf. It is always fed to stock only once in two days, but in winter as it has got dry it is moistened first; ten pounds make a sufficient feed for a horse, and for smaller animals in proportion. Incidentally, good results are got by sowing garlic and onions as catch-crops between the rows of cytisus.
[134] The cytisus shrub was discovered in the island of Cythnus, and from there was transplanted to all the Cyclades and later to the Greek cities, greatly increasing the supply of cheese. Moreover - a fact that makes me very much surprised that it is rare in Italy - it is not afraid of damage from heat and cold and hail and snow, and, as Hyginus adds, not even from wood-grubs, as its wood has no attraction for them.
{48.} L [135] Shrubs and trees also grow at the bottom of the sea - those in the Mediterranean being of smaller size, for the Red Sea and the whole of the Eastern Ocean are filled with forests. The Latin language has no name for what the Greeks call phycos, as our word alga denotes a herbaceous sea-plant, whereas the phycos is a shrub. It has a broad leaf and is coloured green; and it produces a growth one of the Greek names for which means 'leek-weed' and the other 'bind-weed.' [136] Another variety of the same shrub has a hair-like leaf resembling fennel, and grows on rocks, while the one above grows in shallow water near the coast; both kinds shoot in springtime and die off in autumn. The phycos growing on rocks round the island of Crete is also used for a purple dye; the most approved kind being that growing on the northern side of the island, as is the case in regard to sponges. A third variety resembles a grass; its root is knotted, and so is its stalk, like the stalk of a reed.
{49.} L [137] Another group of shrubs is called bryon, which has the leaf of a lettuce only more wrinkled. This grows lower down than the one last mentioned; but in deep water grow a pine and an oak, each one cubit high; they have shells clinging to their branches. The oak is reported to provide a dye for woollen fabrics, and some in deep water are actually said to bear acorns, these facts having been ascertained by shipwrecked persons and by divers. [138] Also other very large marine trees are reported in the neighbourhood of Sicyon - for the sea-vine grows everywhere, but there is a sea-fig, which has no leaves and a red bark, and also the class of marine shrubs includes a sea-palm. Outside the Pillars of Hercules grows a marine shrub with the leaf of a leek, and another with the foliage of a bay-tree and of thyme; both of these when thrown up ashore by the waves turn into pumice.
{50.} L [139] But in the East it is a remarkable fact that as soon as we leave Coptus, passing through the desert we find nothing growing except the thorn called 'dry-thorn,' and this quite seldom; whereas in the Red Sea there are flourishing forests, mostly of bay and olive, both bearing berries and in the rainy season funguses, which when the sun strikes them change into pumice. The bushes themselves grow to the height of a yard and a half. The seas are full of sea-dogs, so much so that it is scarcely safe for a sailor to keep a lookout from the bows - in fact they frequently go for the actual oars.
{51.} L [140] The soldiers of Alexander who sailed from India gave an account of some marine trees the foliage of which was green while in the water but dried up in the sun as soon as it was taken out and turned into salt; they also reported that along the coasts there were bulrushes of stone which exactly resembled real ones, and out in deep water certain shrubs of the colour of cow-horn where they branched out and turning red at the top; they were brittle, like glass when handled, but turned red-hot in fire like iron, their proper colour coming back again when they had cooled off. [141] In the same part of the earth also the rising tide submerges forests, although the trees are higher than the loftiest planes and poplars. Theft foliage is that of the bay-tree, and their blossom has the scent and colour of violets; the berries resemble olives, and these also have an agreeable scent; they form in the autumn and fall off in spring, whereas the leaves are never shed. The smaller of these trees are entirely covered by the tide, but the tops of the largest stand out and ships are moored to them, as well as to their roots when the tide goes out. We have been informed from the same sources that other trees also have been observed in the same sea which always keep their leaves and have a fruit resembling a lupine.
[142] Juba relates that in the neighbourhood of the Troglodytes' Islands a bush grows at the bottom of the sea called 'hair of Isis,' which has no leaves and resembles coral, and that when it is lopped it changes its colour to black and turns hard, and when it falls it breaks; and so does another marine bush the Greek name for which means 'the Graces' eyelid,' which is a potent love-charm; he says women make bracelets and necklaces of it. He declares that when being taken the bush is aware of it and turns as hard as horn, blunting the edge of the knife, but that if it is cut before it is aware of the danger that threatens it, it turns into stone.
Book 14 →
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