76 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



writers, the fruit of which possesses the same 

 astringent virtues. 



But in the first place, Pliny speaks of a species 

 of Spurge as being astringent, though he describes 

 it at the same time as a drastic purgative, implying 

 by the former epithet merely that its taste was 

 rough and forbidding. And in the second place, 

 the Rhamnus is mentioned by Theocritus as growing 

 freely in Calabria, the spot in which he places the 

 scene of his 4th Idyll ; whereas we are told, that 

 the Jujube was introduced into Italy from Syria 

 three hundred years later, in the time of Augustus. 



In the third place, the 'PajJLvos of Dioscorides 

 is stated to have been hung over the doors and 

 windows of houses to keep out enchantments ; and 

 this very property is attributed by Ovid to the 

 Spina alba, or White Thorn, which we have already 

 identified with the Hawthorn of the present day. 



Thus in the Fasti*, Janus presents to the god- 

 dess Carna the White Thorn, as a means of avert- 

 ing any calamities from her household : 



" Sic fatus, virgam qua tristes pellere possit 

 A foribus noxas, hsec erat alba, dedit." 



And again, farther on, he says : 



" Virgaque Jananis de spina ponibur alba 

 Qua lumen thalamis parva feuestra dabat." 



Now the Zizyplms and the Rhamnus do not pos- 

 sess white flowers, nor has any protecting influence 

 of the kind alluded to been ascribed to either. 



h 9th Book. 



