194 pliny's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIII. 



of the tree of ^Ethiopia bears a much stronger resemblance to 

 wool, and the follicule is much larger, being very similar in 

 appearance to a pomegranate ; as for the trees, they are other- 

 wise similar in every respect. Besides this tree, there are 

 some palms, of which we have spoken already. 43 In describing 

 the islands along the coast of ^Ethiopia, we have already made 

 mention 44 of their trees and their odoriferous forests. 



CHAP. 29. (15.) THE TREES OE MOUNT ATLAS. THE CITRUS, AND 



THE TABLES MADE OF THE WOOD THEREOF. 



Mount Atlas is said to possess a forest of trees of a peculiar 

 character, 45 of which we have already spoken. 46 In the vicinity 

 of this mountain is Mauretania, a country which abounds in 

 the citrus, 47 a tree which gave rise to the mania 48 for fine 

 tables, an extravagance with which the women reproach the 

 men, when they complain of their vast outlay upon pearls. 

 There is preserved to the present day a table which belonged 

 to M. Cicero, 49 and for which, notwithstanding his compara- 

 tively moderate means, and what is even more surprising still, 

 at that day too, he gave no less than one 50 million sesterces : 

 we find mention made also of one belonging to Gallus Asinius, 

 which cost one million one hundred thousand sesterces. Two 

 tables were also sold by auction which had belonged to King 

 Juba ; the price fetched by one was one million two hundred 

 thousand sesterces, and that of the other something less. 

 There has been lately destroyed by fire, a table which came 

 down from the family of the Cetliegi, and which had been sold 

 for the sum of one million four hundred thousand sesterces, 

 the price of a considerable domain, if any one, indeed, could be 

 found who would give so large a sum for an estate. 



43 In c. 9 of the present Book. 44 See B. vi. c. 36, 37. 



45 Desfontaines observed in the vicinity of Atlas, several trees pecu- 

 liar to that district. Among others of this nature, he names the Pistacia 

 Atlantica, and the Thuya articulata. 



46 See B. v. c. 1. 



47 Generally supposed to be the Thuya articulata of Desfontaines, the 

 Cedrus Atlantica of other botanists. 



48 This rage for fine tables made of the citrus is alluded to, among others, 

 by Martial and Petronius Arbiter. See also Lucan, A. ix. B. 426, et. scq. 



49 It is a rather curious fact that it is in Cicero's works that we find 

 the earliest mention made of citrus tables, 2nd Oration ag. Verres, s. 4 : — 

 " You deprived Q. Lutatius Diodorus of Lilybaeum of a citrus table of re- 

 markable age and beauty." ^ Somewhere about £9000. 



