144 
plii^y's natiteal histoey. 
[Book XII. 
CHAP, 48. THE SWEET-SCENTED CALAMUS THE SWEET-SCENTED 
EUSH. 
Scented calamus also, which grows in Arabia, is common to 
both India and Syria, that which grows in the last country- 
being superior to all the rest. At a distance of one hundred 
and fifty stadia from the Mediterranean, between Mount 
Libanus and another mountain of no note (and not, as some 
have supposed, Antilibanus), there is a valley of moderate 
size, situate in the vicinity of a lake, the marshy swamps of 
which are dried up every summer. At a distance of thirty 
stadia from this lake grow the sweet-scented calamus and 
rush. Ve shall here make some further mention of this rush 
as well, although we have set apart another Book for plants 
of that description, seeing that it is our object here to de- 
scribe all the different materials used for unguents. These 
plants differ in appearance in no respect from others of their 
kind ; but the calamus, which has the more agreeable smell of 
the two, attracts by its odour at a considerable distance, and 
is softer to the touch than the other. The best is the kind 
which is not so brittle, but breaks into long flakes, and not 
short, like a radish. In the hollow stalk there is a substance 
like a cobweb, which is generally known by the name of the 
''flower:'' those plants which contain the most of it are 
esteemed the best. The other tests of its goodness are its 
being of a black colour — those w^hich are white not being 
esteemed ; besides which, to be of the very best quality it 
should be short, thick, and pliant when broken. The price of 
the scented calamus is eleven, and of the rush fifteen denarii 
per pound. It is said that the sweet-scented rush is to be met 
with also in Campania. 
CHAP. 49. HAMMONIACTJM. 
We have now departed from the lands which look towards 
59 Fee remarks, that this must not be confounded with the Calamus 
aromaticus of the moderns, of which Pliny speaks in B. xxv. c. 100, with 
sufficient accuracy to enable us to identify it with the Acorus calamus of 
Linnaeus. It is not ascertained by naturalists what plant is meant by 
Pliny in the present instance, though Fee is of opinion that a gramineous 
plant of the genus Andropogon is meant. M. Guibourt has suggested that 
the Indian Gentiana chirayta is the plant. From what Pliny says in B. 
xiii. c. 21, it appears that this calamus grew in Syria, which is also the 
native country of the Andropogon schoenanthus. 
