Muscus 



Muscus. 



'stagna virentia musco ' {Ge. iv. i8). 



' muscosi fontes ' {Ec. vii. 45). 



' flumina, muscus ubi et viridissima gramine ripa ' 



{Ge. iii. 144). 



The name seems to be applied especially to the 

 larger mosses and their kindred, sphagnum and 

 others, which grow in damp ground. 



Myrica. 



' ilium . . . etiam flevere myricae ' (Ec. x. 13). 



' te nostrae, Vare, myricae, | te nemus omne canet ' 



(£c. vi. 10). 

 ' humiles . . . myricae ' {Ec. iv. 2). 



The tamarisk (Tamarix Gallica) is a familiar 

 object on the Sicilian coasts, and figures as such in 

 Theocritus. From him Virgil must have taken it, 

 for he is not likely to have seen the shrub in his 

 youth, though it is occasionally found by inland 

 marshes. Another species of the genus was sacred 

 to Apollo, and doubtless Virgil alludes to this. Thus 

 he takes it as the emblem of the pastoral poet, coup- 

 ling it with the vineyards whereof he sings. In 

 Ec. viii. 54 the shepherd refers to tamarisks pro- 

 ducing amber as a thing that could not be. 



In Cornwall the shrub is used for hedges, its 

 slender leaves enabling it to defy the Atlantic gales. 



Flower, April and May. 



Italian names, Tamarice and Brula. 



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