BOOK XXI. Lvi. 96-Lviii. 98 



its own." The top of its head contains a gum of 

 pleasant flavour, called thorn mastich. 



LVII. And cactos also grovv^s only in Sicily ; it too Thecams 

 has peculiar properties of its own. Its stems, '^'"'tichoice) 

 shooting out from the root, trail on the ground ; the 

 leaves are broad and prickly. The stems are called 

 cacti, which make, even when preserved, a palatable 

 food. One * kind, however, has an upright stem 

 called pternix, of the same pleasant flavour, but it 

 will not keep. The seed is downy, the down " being 

 called pappus. When the seeds have been taken 

 away and the rind, there remains something as 

 tender as the brain of the palm. It is called ascaha. 



LVIII. Tribulus '' is found only in marshy places. wairr 

 A hard ^ substance elsewhere, near the rivers Nile '"'"''"""'• 

 and Strymon it is used as food. It bends towards 

 the water, has a leaf like that of the elm, and the 

 stalk is long. But in other parts of the world there 



" It is hard to resist the suspicion that either the text is 

 corrupt in parts of this chapter or else PHny has misunder- 

 stood Theophrastus. It should be remembered that Phny 

 probably made notes while a reader read aioud to him. The 

 text of Th. {VI. 4. 11) may be useful : to Se nepiKapTnov , ev 

 w ro aTTepfia, ttjv jtiev fiop(f>r)v aKavOoJhes, a(f>aLpe9evT<x>v 8e Ttoi' 

 TTamrcoBwv OTrepfxaTojv eScoSt/xov /cat tovto Kal eix<f>epes ro) tov 

 <f>OLVLK0s eyKe(f>dXu)- KaXovoL 8e auTO aKaXiav. Detlefsen and 

 Mayhoff have the same text, but I suspect : (a) that Phny 

 wrongly rendered erepov by unum; [h) that there is a lacuna 

 either before or after ei, because of the strange genitive 

 lanuginis; (c) that cortice is not the peel of the caulis but 

 Pliny's word here for neptKapTnov, i.e., we should emend to 

 something yielding the sense: "take away the down, and 

 there remains a tender, edible pod " ; {d) that avro oKaXiav was 

 read. or heard, as avr' doKaXLav. 



'^ This tribulus (water chestnut) is one of the two varicties 

 mentioned in XXII. 27. 



* Dira would mean: " regarded as taboo." 



233 



