BOOK XII. xLiii. 97-xLv. 99 



and is hardly at all hot to the taste, and rather gives a 

 sHght nip with its moderate warmth ; it must be of 

 a pui^ple colour, and though bulky weigh very httle, 

 and the pores of the outer coats should be short and 

 not Uable to break. This kind of casia is called by 

 a foreign name, lada. Another kind is near-balsam, 

 so called because it has a scent Uke that of balsam, 

 but it has a bitter taste and consequently is more 

 useful for medicinal purposes, just as the black 

 kind is more employed for unguents. No substance 

 has a wider range of price — the best quaUties seU at 

 50 denarii a pound and the others at 5. 



To these varieties the dealers have added one a trade 

 which they caU Daphnis's casia, with the further ^a,^ "■' 

 designation of near-cinnamon, and they price it 

 at 300 denarii. It is adulterated with styrax, and 

 with very smaU sprigs of bay because of the similarity 

 of the barks. It is also grown in our part of the world, 

 and I have seen it on the extreme edge of our empire, 

 where the Rhine washes our frontier, planted among 

 beehives ; but there it has not the scorched colour 

 produced by the sun, and for the same reason also it 

 has not the same scent as the southern product. 



XLIV. From the border of the casia and cinnamon 

 district gum-resin ^ and aloe-wood are also imported, 

 but they come by way of the Nabataean Cave- 

 dweUers, who are a colony from the Nabataei. 



XLW The same place is also a centre for the coUec- other scented 

 tion of serichatum and gabaUum,^ the supply of which ^'^^- 

 is used up by the Arabs in their own country, so that 

 they are only known by name to our part of the world, 

 although growing in the same country as cinnamon 

 and casia. However, serichatum does occasionaUy 

 get through to us, and is employed by some persons 



