ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. ii. ii-iii. i 



shoots and general fonn, but in the strange property ^ 

 which belongs to it. Its appearance is spinous and 

 the leaf is like ferns, but, when one touches the twigs, 

 they say that the leaves as it were wither up -and 

 collapse and then after a time come to life again and 

 flourish. Such are the most conspicuous things 



peculiar to the country, to speak only of trees or 

 shrubs. For we will speak later of the things which 

 grow in the river and the marshes, when we come to 

 speak of the other water plants. 



'All the trees of this kind in that country are 

 large, both in height and stoutness ; thus at Memphis 

 there is said to be a tree of such girth that three 

 men cannot embrace it. The wood too, when split, 

 is good, being of extremely close grain and in colour 

 like the nettle-tree. 



Of the irtes and shrubs s])ecial to Libya. 



III. * In Libya the lotos is most abundant and 

 fairest ; so also is the Christ's thorn, and in some 

 parts, such as the Nasamonian district and near the 

 temple of Zeus Amnion, the date-palm. In the 

 Cyrenaica the cypress grows and the olives are fairest 

 jind the oil most abundant. Most special of all to 

 -his district is the silphium, and the land also bears 

 abundant fragrant saffron-crocus. As to the lotos — 

 the whole tree is peculiar, of good stature, as tall as 

 a pear-tree, or nearly so ; the leaf is divided and like 

 that of the kermes-oak, and the wood is black. There 

 are several sorts, which differ in their fruits ; the fruit 



' This section is evidently out of place ; its probable place 

 is at the end of § 10, so that the description will belong to 

 the ' Egvptian plum.' 



* See Index. Plin. 13. 104^106. 



303 



