THE CONIFEROUS PLANTS OF ITALY. 141 



sistent wing. Pliny probably confounded these plants the one 

 with the other.* The ancient botanists, like the common people 

 of the present time, called its wood Cedar. Pliny says that 

 many trees of Citnis are found in the country of the Moors, near 

 the Atlas, and that this wood is imported by the wealthy for 

 making tables ;-|" it may be asked whether this refers to Juni- 

 perus jihcenicea, which grows in North Africa to a much 

 greater height than in Italy, or to Callitris quadrivalvis, which, 

 according to Desfontaines, grows on the Atlas and on the uncul- 

 vated hills of Barbary ; or lastly to the Cedar of Lebanon, 

 which, according to some recent observations, is also found on 

 the Atlas. 



The Sabuia of the ancients ought also to be regarded as our 

 Juniperus Sabina. The ancients place it among the evergreens ; 

 and when it is said that there are two sorts, one with the leaves 

 of the Tamarisk, and the other with those of the Cypress, the 

 two sorts of leaves of this shrub have probably been remembered : 

 the leaves of the one sort are short, closely packed, arranged in 

 four series, and resemble those of the Cypress ; while those of the 

 other are long, drawn out, and look like the leaves of the 

 Tamarisk. I 



The Taxus of the ancients is no doubt the same as the present 

 one. Pliny mentions it at the end of his enumeration of the 

 Conifers, and says that it resembles them ; that it is the only one 

 with berries ; that it is dark, graceful, sad-looking, and without 

 resin. § In another passage, he says expressly that it is an 

 evergreen. II The dark colour of this tree and its thick shade, 

 mentioned also by Lucanus,ir led the ancients to look upon it as 



* Pliny, xiii. II — " Et majoris cedri duo genera : quae floret, fructum non 

 fert ; frugifera non floret ; et in ea antecedentem fructum occupat novus. 

 Semen ejus cupresso simile. Materie vero ipsi aeternitas ; itaque et simul- 

 acra deorum ex e^ factitaverunt." 



t Pliny, xiii. 29 — " Atlas mons peculiar! proditur silva de qua diximus. 

 Confines ei Mauri, quibus plurima arbor citri et mensarum insania, quas 

 feminae viris contra margaritas regerunt." 



I PZirt?/, xvi. 33 — "Folia non decidunt — Sabinse." 76. xxiv. 61 — "Her- 

 ba Sabinse, brathy appellata a Graecis, duorum generum est ; altera tamarici 

 similis folio, altera cupresso ; quare quidem Creticam cupressum dixerunt." 

 — Pliny is incorrect when he calls the Sabina a herb ; it is a shrub. 



§ Pliny, xvi. 20 — " Similis his etiamnum aspectu est, nequid praetereatur, 

 taxus, minime virens, gracilisque et tristis, ac dira, nuUo succo, ex omni- 

 bus sola baccifera." 



II Pliny, xvi. 33 — "Folia non decidunt abieti, &c. — taxo."' Lib. xvi. 78 

 — " Cariem vetustatemque non sentiunt Cupressus, cedrus, taxus." 



^ Liicani, Pharsalia, ed. Weber, vi. 645 — " Phoebo non pervia taxus 

 opacat." 



