BOOK XIII. XXXV. 114-XXXVI1. 117 



shrub that produccs the grain of Cnidus, which some 

 call flax, the name of the shrub itself being thymelaea, 

 which others call chamelaea, others pyros achne, some 

 cnestor, others cneorum. It resembles the oleaster, 

 but has narrower leaves, which when chewed have a 

 gummy consistency; it is the size of a myrtle, and 

 has a seed of the colour and shape of emmer, which is 

 only used for medicinal purposes. 



XXXVI. The goat-shrub only grows in the island of 

 Crete ; it resembles the terebinth in seed as well as in 

 other respects ; the seed is reported to be very effica- 

 cious against arrow wounds. The same island also pro- 

 duces a goat-thorn," which has the root of the v.hite 

 thorn, and is much preferred to the goat-thorn grow- 

 ing in the country of the Medes or in Achaia ; its 

 price is 3 denarii per pound. 



XXXVII. Asia also produces the goat-plant or scor- 

 pio, a thorn without leaves and with reddish branches, 

 used for medicinal purposes : Italy also has the mjTica, 

 which is there called the tamarisk, and Achaia the 

 wild brya ; a remarkable property of the brya is 

 that only the cultivated kind bears fruit ; this re- 

 sembles a gall-nut. In Syria and Egypt this shrub is 

 abundant, and we give the name of ' unlucky wood ' 

 to its timber ; yet some of the timbers of Greece are 

 unluckier, for Greece grows a tree named the ostrys, 

 another form of the name being ostrya, which grows 

 by itself round rocks washed by water ; it is Hke an 

 ash in its bark and branches, and a pear in its leaf, 

 though the leaves are a httle longer and thicker and 

 wrinkled with indentations running all across them ; 

 the seed resembles barley in colour as well as shape. 

 The wood is hard and sohd, and it is said that if it is 

 brought into a house it causes difficulty in child-birth 



167 



