108 
play's FATUilAL HISTOET. 
[Book Xn. 
made mention of the wool-bearing trees wliich it produces ; 
and we have, likewise, touched upon the extraordinary 
magnitude of the trees of India. YirgiP^ has spoken in 
glowing terms of the ebony-tree, one of those which are pecu- 
liar to India, and he further informs us, that it will grow in 
no other country. Herodotus, however, has preferred to 
ascribe it to Ethiopia ; and states that the people of that 
country were in the habit of paying to the kings of Persia, 
every third year, by way of tribute, one hundred billets of 
ebony-wood, together with a certain quantity of gold and 
ivory. Nor ought we here to omit the fact, inasmuch as the 
same author has stated to that effect, that the -3i]thiopians 
were also in the habit of paying, by way of tribute, twenty 
large elephants' teeth. So high was the esteem in which 
ivory was held in the year from the building of our city, 
310: for it was at that period that this author was com- 
piling his History eit Thurii, in Italy ; which is all the more 
remarkable, from the implicit confidence we place in him, 
when he says^^ that up to that time, no native of Asia or 
Greece, to his knowledge at least, had ever beheld the river 
Padus. The plan of ^Ethiopia, which, as we have already 
mentioned, was recently laid before the Emperor JN^ero, in- 
forms us, that this tree is very uncommon in the country that 
lies between Syene, the extreme boundary of the empire, and 
Meroe, a distance of eight hundred and ninety-six miles ; and 
that, in fact, the only kind of tree that is to be found there, is 
the palm. It was, probably, for this reason, that ebony held 
the third place in the tribute that was thus imposed. 
29 See B. vi. c. 20. 
See B. vii. c. 2. The tree to wMch lie alludes is unknown. 
31 Georg. B. il 11. 116, 117. 
32 B. iii. c. 97. There is little doubt that, under the general name of 
ebony," the wood of many kinds of trees was, and is still, imported into 
the western world, so that both Herodotus and Virgil may have been cor- 
rect in representing ebony as the product of both India and Ethiopia. 
Herodotus says tmo hundred. 
33 In Italy, whither he had retired from the hostile attacks of his fellow- 
citizens. It is supposed by Le Vayer and others, that Pliny is wrong in 
his assertion, that Herodotus wrote to this effect while at Thurii ; though 
Dr. Schmitz is inclined to be of opinion that he is right in his statement. 
3i B. iii. c. 115. 
35 B. vi. c. 35. 
