65 



was twice consul, and afterwards married 

 the Empress Agrippina, was so much at- 

 tached to, that he not only reposed under 

 it, but sprinkled it plentifully with wine, and 

 would even embrace it. 



Manius Curius, after he had subdued 

 his enemies, protested with an oath, that of 

 all the booty and pillage taken from them, 

 he had reserved nothing for himself but a 

 cruet, or little ewer, made of beech-wood, 

 wherein he might sacrifice to the gods. 



The beech, it will be observed, from 

 the class it is ranged under, produces both 

 male and female flowers on the same tree. 

 The fruit succeeds the latter blossoms, which 

 have a one-leafed empalement, cut into four 

 parts, but have no petals: the germen is 

 fixed to the empalement, which afterwards 

 becomes a roundish capsule, armed with 

 soft pines opening in three cells, each con- 

 taining a triangular nut, called the beech 

 mast. This nut is palatable to the taste, 

 but when eaten i great quantities occasions 

 head-aches and giddiness ; nevertheless, when 

 dried and ground into meal, it makes a 

 wholesome bread. This fruit is celebrated 

 for having enabled the inhabitants of Scio, 

 one of the Ionian Islands, to sustain a me- 



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