ssy 



BOOK XXII. 



THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND FROITS. 



CHAP. 1. THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS. 



NATURE and the earth might have well filled the measure of 

 our admiration, if we had nothing else to do but to consider 

 the properties enumerated in the preceding Book, and the nu- 

 merous varieties of plants that we find created for the wants 

 or the enjoyment of mankind. And yet, how much is there 

 still left for us to describe, and how many discoveries of a still 

 more astonishing nature ! The greater part, in fact, of the 

 plants there mentioned recommend themselves to us by their 

 taste, their fragrance, or their beauty, and so invite us to 

 make repeated trials of their virtues : but, on the other hand, 

 the properties of those which remain to be described, furnish 

 us with abundant proof that nothing has been created by Nature 

 without some purpose to fulfil, unrevealed to us though it 

 may be. 



CHAP. 2. (1.) PLANTS USED BY NATIONS FOR THE ADORNMENT OF 



THE PERSON. 



I remark, in the first place, that there are some foreign na- 

 tions which, in obedience to long-established usage, employ 

 certain plants for the embellishment of the person. That, 

 among some barbarous peoples, the females 1 stain the face by 

 means of various plants, there can be little doubt, and among 

 the Daci and the Sarmatse we find the men even marking 2 their 

 bodies. There is a plant in Gaul, similar to the plantago in 

 appearance, and known there by the name of " glastum : 5>;i 



1 Fee remarks, that at the present day, in all savage nations in which 

 tatooing is practised, the men display more taste and care in the operation 

 than is shewn by the females. There is little doubt that it is the art of 

 tatooing the body, or in other words, first puncturing it and then rubbing 

 in various colours, that is here spoken of by Pliny. 



2 " Inscribunt." "Writing upon,'' or u tatooing," evidently. 



3 Our 4< woad," the Isatis tiuctoria of Linnaeus, which imparts a blue 



