356 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



kernels within ; for there is a kind, says Pliny, that has 

 a kernel as hard as a bone. From this fruit was pressed a 

 wine similar to mead, which he states, on the authority of 

 Nepos, would not keep above ten days. The Lotophagi 

 pressed the berries of this fruit, with wheat or frumenty, 

 into a paste ; and so put it up in great barrels or vessels 

 for food. We have heard, says Pliny, that whole armies 

 passing to and fro through Africa have fed upon it, having 

 no other food. 



The wood of the lotus-tree, according to the account 

 of Pliny, was of a black colour, and was, says he, much 

 sought after for making musical pipes. Shafts of daggers 

 and knives, &c. were made of the roots. This author 

 says, " it is growing in Italy, but with the change of soil 

 it has changed its nature ;" but in his 16th book, chap. 30, 

 he says, " the lotus-tree is planted about the finest houses 

 in the court-yards, because the boughs spread so large. 

 Although the body is short and small, it affords much 

 shade ; yet there is not a tree that gives shade for so 

 short a time, as the leaves fall at the approach of winter, 

 when it admits the sun." The bark is described as of a 

 pleasing hue, and was used to colour skins and leather ; 

 the root to dye wool. 



" The fruit," says he, " resembles the snouts or muzzles 

 of wild beasts, and many of the smaller berries seem to 

 hang to those that are larger." 



The same author, in writing on the age of trees, (book 

 16, chap. 24) says, " At Rome, in the court-yard belong- 

 ing to the chapel of the goddess Diana Lucina, there is 

 yet to be seen a lote-tree standing before the chapel 

 which was built in the year of the Anarchy, when Rome 

 was desolate of all magistrates, which was three hundred 

 and sixty-nine years after the foundation of the city ; but 

 how much more ancient this tree is than the chapel, God 

 knows ! for older it is without all question, as from the 



