BOOK XIII. xLix. 138-L1. 141 



everywhere, but there is a sea-fig, which has no 

 leaves and a red bark, and also the class of marine 

 shrubs includes a sea-palm. Outside the Straits of 

 Gibraltar grows a marine shrub with the leaf of a 

 leek, and another with the foliage of a bay-tree and 

 of thyme ; both of these when thrown up ashore by 

 the waves turn into pumice. 



L. But in the East it is a remarkable fact that as Eastern 

 soon as we leave Keft, passing through the desert ^veg^im. 

 we find nothing growing except the thorn called ' dry- 

 thorn,' and this quite seldom ; w^iereas in the Red 

 Sca there are flourishing forests, mostly of bay and 

 ohve, both bearing berries and in the rainy season 

 funguses, which when the sun strikes them change 

 into pumice. The bushcs themselves grow to the 

 height of a yard and a half. The seas are full of 

 sea-dogs, so much so that it is scarcely safe for a 

 sailor to keep a look-out from the bows — in fact they 

 frequently go for the actual oars. 



LI. The soldiers of Alexander who sailed from 

 India gave an account of some marine trees the foliage 

 of which was green while in the water but dried up in 

 the sun as soon as it w^as taken out and turned into 

 salt ; they also reported that along the coasts there 

 were bulrushes of stone w hich exactly resembled real 

 ones, and out in deep water certain shrubs of the 

 colour of cow-horn where they branched out and 

 turning red at the top ; they were brittle, like glass 

 when handled, but turned red-hot in fire like iron, 

 their proper colour coming back again when they had 

 cooled oflf. In the samc part of the earth also the rising 

 tide submerges forests, although the trees are higher 

 than the loftiest planes and poplars. Their fohage is 

 that of the bay-tree, and their l)lossom has the scent 



181 



