Chap. 19.] THE EGYPTIAN THOEN. 183 



CHAP. 18.— THE CITCUS. 



On the other hand, the wood of the cucus 81 is held in very 

 high esteem. It is similar in nature to the palm, as its leaves 

 are similarly used for the purposes of texture : it differs from 

 it, however, in spreading out its arms in large branches.^ The 

 fruit, which is of a size large enough to fill the hand, k of a 

 tawny colour, and recommends itself by its juice, which is a 

 mixture of sweet and rough. The seed in the inside is large 

 and of remarkable hardness, and turners use it for making 

 curtain rings. 82 The kernel is sweet, while fresh ; but when 

 dried it becomes hard to a most remarkable degree, so much 

 so, that it can only be eaten after being soaked in water for 

 several days. The wood is beautifully mottled with circling 

 veins, 83 for which reason it is particularly esteemed among the 

 Persians. 



CHAP. 19. — -THE EGYPTIAN TH0EN. 



]S T o less esteemed, too, in the same country, is a certain kind 

 of thorn, 84 though only the black variety, its wood being im- 

 perishable, in water even, a quality which renders it particu- 

 larly valuable for making the sides of ships : on the other hand, 

 the white kinds will rot very rapidly. It has sharp, prickly 

 thorns on the leaves even, and bears its seeds in pods ; they 

 are employed for the same purposes as galls in the preparation 

 of leather. The flower, too, has a pretty effect when made 

 into garlands, and is extremely useful in medicinal preparations. 

 A gum, also, distils from this tree ; but the principal merit 

 that it possesses is, that when it is cut down, ^ it will grow 

 ao-ain within three years. It grows in the vicinity of Thebes, 

 Adhere we also find the quercus, the Persian tree, and the olive : 

 the spot that produces it is a piece of woodland, distant three 



« Many have taken this to he the cocoa-nut tree ; -but, as Fee remarks, 

 that is a ti-ee of India, and this of Egypt. There is little doubt that it is 

 the doum of the Arabs, the Cucifera Thebaica of Delille. The timber of 

 the trunk is much used in Egypt, and of the leaves carpets, bags, and 

 panniers are made. In fact, the description of it and its fruit is almost 

 identical with that here given by Pliny. 



82 The seed or stone of the doum is still used in Egypt for making the 

 beads of chaplets : it admits of a very high polish. 



83 Matcries crispioris elegantiae. 



s4 See B. xxiv. c. 67. This is, no doubt, the Acacia Nilotica of Linnaeus, 

 which produces the gum Arabic of modern commerce. 



