146 
pliky's natural histoet. 
[Book XII. 
shaggy tufts upon trees, such as we often see upon the qnercus : 
those, however, of which we are speaking, emit a most ex- 
quisite odour. The most esteemed of all are the whitest, and 
those situate at the greatest height upon the tree. Those of 
second quality are red, while those which are hlack are not of 
the slightest value. The sphagnos, too, that is produced on 
islands and among rocks,^^ is held in no esteem, as well as all 
those varieties which have the odour of the palm-tree, and not 
that which is so peculiarly their own. 
CHAP. 51. CYPROS. 
The Cyprus is a tree of Egypt, with the leaves of the zizi- 
phus,^^ and seeds like coriander, white and odoriferous. 
These seeds are boiled in olive oil, and then subjected to 
pressure j the product is known to us as cypres. The price of 
it is five denarii per pound. The best is that produced on the 
banks of the Nile, near Canopus, that of second quality coming , 
from Ascalon in Judaea, and the third in estimation for the 
sweetness of its odour, from the island of Cyprus. Some people 
will have it that this is the same as the tree which in Italy we | 
call ligustrum.^' 
CHAP. 52.— ASPALATHOS, OR EEYSISCEPTEUM. 
In the same country,^ too, grows aspalathos,^^ a white, 
thorny shrub, the size of a moderate tree, and with flowers 
like the rose, the root of which is in great request for un- 
guents. It is said that every shrub over which the rainbow 
is extended is possessed of the sweet odour that belongs to 
the aspalathos, but that if the aspaiathos is one of them, its | 
Probably the Roccella tinctoria of Linnieus, a lichen most commonly 
fomid upon rocks. 
The henne, the Lawsonia inermis of the modern naturalists, a shrub 
found in Egypt, Syria, and Barbary. From this tree the henna is made 
v/ith which the women of the East stain the skin of their hands and feet. 
The jujube-tree. See B. xv. c. 14. 
66 See B. XX. c. 82. 
6'' Or privet. 
68 But in B. xxiv. c. 68, he says that this plant grows in the island of 
■Eh odes. 
69 According to Fee, this is the same as the Lignum Ehodianum, or j 
wood of Hhodes, of commerce, sometimes also called, but incorrectly, wood! 
of roses. It is, probably, the same as the Convolvulus scoparius of Lin-'! 
nasus. 
