Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



Myrtus. 



' Paphiae . . . myrtus ' (Ge. ii. 64). 



' amantes litora myrtus ' (Ge. iv. 124). ^ 



The graceful habit and pleasing scent of the 

 myrtle (Myrtus communis) brought it early into 

 cultivation, and the Hebrew poets made it supplant 

 the thorn and the brier in the new earth. Indeed, 

 though now well established in Italy, it is possibly 

 of Oriental origin. In Theophrastus' time there 

 were already several varieties, and he notes that the 

 one which grew on the Tyrrhene coast was of dwarf 

 habit. This is possibly the Tarentine or small-leaved 

 variety, which is still in cultivation. The tree seldom 

 exceeds twelve feet in height, and Sir Arthur Hort 

 does Theophrastus an injustice in making him say 

 that some myrtles are large trees. 



The myrtle is common on south Italian coasts, 

 and between Taranto and Reggio often makes a con- 

 siderable scrub, though it is sometimes swept away 

 by the spring floods of the fiumicini. Its liking 

 for the shore perhaps accounts for its dedication to 

 Venus, to whose temple at Paphos Virgil's epithet 

 alludes. To compliment Octavian on his supposed 

 descent from Aeneas Virgil makes the world crown his 

 temples ' materna myrto ' (Ge. i. 28), with the favourite 

 sprays of his divine ancestress. Even in Hades 

 luckless lovers live in a grove of myrtle (Ae. vi. 443). 



In early days the myrtle, like the cornel, supplied 

 shafts for spears, ' validis hastilibus ' (Ge. ii. 447), 

 but for this purpose it was supplanted by the ash. 

 When Virgil makes Camilla carry ' pastoralem prae- 



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