ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. in. 1-3 



is as large as a bean, and in ripening like grapes it 

 changes its colour : it grows, like myrtle-berries, 

 close together on the shoots ; to eat, that which grows 

 among the people called the Lotus-eaters 1 is sweet 

 pleasant and harmless, and even good for the stomach ; 

 but that which has no stone is pleasanter (for 

 there is also such a sort), and they also make wine 

 from it. 



The tree is abundant and produces much fruit ; 

 thus the army of Ophelias, 2 when it was marching 

 on Carthage, was fed, they say, on this alone for 

 several days, when the provisions ran short. It is 

 abundant also in the island called the island of 

 the Lotus-eaters ; 3 this lies off the mainland at 

 no great distance : it grows however in no less 

 quantity, 4 but even more abundantly 5 on the main- 

 land ; for, as has been said, 6 this tree is common in 

 Libya generally as well as the Christ's thorn ; for in 

 the islands called Euesperides 7 they use these trees 

 as fuel. However this lotos 8 differs from that found 

 in the land of the Lotus-eaters. 



9 The (Egyptian) ' Christ's thorn ' is more shrubby 

 than the lotos ; it has a leaf like the tree of the same 

 name of our country, but the fruit is different ; for 

 it is not flat, but round and red, and in size as large 

 as the fruit of the prickly cedar or a little larger ; 

 it has a stone which is not eaten with the fruit, as in 

 the case of the pomegranate, but the fruit is sweet, 

 and, if one pours wine over it, they say that it 

 becomes sweeter and that it makes the wine sweeter. 



5 irXflov U; ? Tr\eicav with MV. 



6 4. 3. 1. 7 cf. Hdt. 4. 191. 

 8 cf. Hdt. 2. 96. 



" See Index. Plin. 13. 111. 



305 



