BOOK XIII. xA.wii. 117-XL1. 121 



and painful deaths. XXXVIII. Equally unlucky is 

 the tree on the island of Lesbos called the euonymus," 

 which is not unhke the pomegranate tree — its leaves 

 are between pomegranate and bay-leaves in size, but 

 have the shape and soft texture of the leaf of the 

 pomegranate — and which by the scent of its white 

 blossom gives prompt warning of its pestilential 

 quahties.^ It bears a pod Hke that of the sesame, 

 with a coarse square-shaped grain inside it which is 

 deadly for animals ; and the leaf also has the same 

 property, although sometimes an immediate evacua- 

 tion of the bowels gives rehef. 



XXXIX. Alexander CorneHus mentions a tree called 

 the Uon-tree, the timber of which he says was used 

 to build the Argo, which bears mistletoe resembhng 

 that on the oak, and which cannot be rotted by water 

 or destroyed by fire, the same being the case with its 

 mistletoe. This tree is, so far as I am aware, unknown 

 to anyone else. 



XL. ' Andrachle ' is almost always rendered into 

 Latin for the Greeks by the word ' purslain,' 

 although purslain is a herbaceous plant and its 

 Greek name is one letter different, andrachne : for 

 the rest the andrachle is a forest tree, nor does it 

 grow in level country. It resembles the arbutus, 

 only it has a smaller leaf and is an evergreen ; the 

 bark, though not rough, might be supposed to have 

 frozen round the tree, it has such a wretched 

 appearance. 



XLI. The sumach has a similar leaf, but is smaHer 

 in size. It has the pecuHarity of clothing its fruit 

 (which is caHed pappus) with downy fluff, a thing 

 that occurs with no other tree. The apharce<^ also 

 resembles the andrachle, and Hke it bears twice a 



169 



