in.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 73 



Trees were divided by the ancients into those 

 of good, and of bad omen. This was regarded as 

 belonging to the former head, and hence its name. 



ILEX. 



The Ilex aquifolium, or common Holly, has been 

 already alluded to v . It was called aquifolia by the 

 Latins, and oyuAaf by the Greeks. 



ZIZYPHUS. 



The Jujube-tree, Zizyphus vulgaris, seems to be 

 alluded to by Pliny x when, speaking of exotic fruits, 

 he particularises the Zizyphus and the Tuber, the 

 former of which came from Syria, the latter from 

 Africa. 



The fruit of the Zizt/phus, he says y , is more like 

 a berry than an apple, although classed with the 

 latter. Sibthorp informs us that this is the tree 

 known in Greece at present by the name of Ila- 

 Xiovpi, which leads him to regard it as the HaA/- 

 ovpos of Dioscorides, with which that of Theo- 

 phrastus appears to agree, only that the former 

 describes its fruit as consisting of three or four 

 seeds included in a pod, whilst the latter desig- 

 nates it as a kind of berry. 



The Paliurus australis, then, of southern Europe, 

 P. aculeatus of Decandolle, Zizyphus paliurus of 

 older botanists, would hardly correspond with the 

 Palmrus of Pliny and Theophrastus, although the 



r p. 13. * Lib. xv. 14. 



r See " Lectures on Roman Husbandry," p. 270. 



