Chap. 15.] CARYOPHYLLOtf. 113 



by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite ? Both 

 pepper and ginger grow wild in their respective countries, and 

 yet here we buy them by weight — just as if they were so 

 much gold or silver. Italy, 31 too, now possesses a species of 

 pepper-tree, somewhat larger than the myrtle, and not very 

 unlike it. The bitterness of the grains is similar to that which 

 we may reasonably suppose to exist in the Indian pepper 

 when newly gathered ; but it is wanting in that mature fla- 

 vour which the Indian grain acquires by exposure in the sun, 

 and, consequently, bears no resemblance to it, either in colour 

 or the wrinkled appearance of the seeds. Pepper is adulterated 

 with juniper berries, which have the property, to a marvellous 

 degree, of assuming the pungency of pepper. In reference to 

 its weight, there are also several methods of adulterating it. 



CHAP. 15. CAEYOPHYLLOIST, LYCION, AND THE CHIEONIAN 



PYXACANTHTJS. 



There is, also, in India another grain which bears a consi- 

 derable resemblance to pepper, but is longer and more brittle ; 

 it is known by the name of caryophyllon. 52 It is said that 

 this grain is produced in a sacred grove in India ; with us it 

 is imported for its aromatic perfume. The same country pro- 

 duces, also, a thorny shrub, with grains which bear a resem- 

 blance to pepper, and are of a remarkably bitter taste. The 

 leaves of this shrub are small, like those of the Cyprus ; 53 the 

 branches are three cubits in length, the bark pallid, and the 

 roots wide-spreading and woody, and of a colour resembling 

 that of boxwood. By boiling this root with the seed in a 

 copper vessel, the medicament is prepared which is known by 

 the name of lycion. 54 This thorny shrub grows, also, on 



51 It is very doubtful what tree is here alluded to by Pliny, though cer- 

 tain that it is not one of the pepper-trees. Sprengel takes it to be the 

 Daphne Thymelaea. 



52 It has been suggested that under this name the clove is meant, though 

 Fee and Desfontaines express a contrary opinion. Sprengel thinks that it 

 is the Vitex trifolia of Linnseus, and Bauhin suggests the cubeb, the Piper 

 cubeba of Linnseus. Fee thinks it may have possibly been the Myrtus 

 caryophyllata of Ceylon, the fruit of which corresponds to the description 

 here given by Pliny. 



53 See c. 52 of the present Book. 



54 Or " Lycium." It is impossible to say with exactness what the medical 

 liquid called " Lycion " was. Catechu, an extract from the tan of the 

 acacia, has been suggested ; though the fruit of that tree does not answer 

 the present description. 



VOL. III. I 



