Chap. 6.] 
THE PALM-TEEE. 
169 
the brother of L. Plancus, who was twice consul and censor, 
after being proscribed by the Triumvirs, was betrayed in his 
place of concealment at Salernum by the smell of his un- 
guents, a disgrace which more than outweighed all the guilt ^ 
attending his proscription. For who is there that can be of 
opinion that such men as this do not richly deserve to come to 
a violent end ? 
CHAP. 6. THE PALM-TREE. 
In other respects, Egypt is the country that is the best suited 
of all for the production of unguents ; and next to it, Cam- 
pania,^ from its abundance of roses. 
(4.) Judsea, too, is greatly renowned for its perfumes, and 
even still more so for its palm-trees,^ the nature of w^hich I 
shall take this opportunity of enlarging upon. There are some 
found in Europe also. They are not uncommon in Italy, but 
are quite barren there. ^ The palms on the coast of Spain bear 
fruit, but it is sour.''' The fruit of those of Africa is sweet, 
but quickly becomes vapid and loses its flavour ; which, how- 
ever is not the case with the fruit of those that grow in the 
East.^ Erom these trees a wine is made, and bread by some 
nations,^ and they afford an aliment for numerous quadrupeds. 
It will be with very fair reason then, that we shall confine our 
description to the palm-tree of foreign countries. There are 
with the sanction of his brother. In consequence of his use of perfumes, 
the place of his concealment " got wind and in order to save his slaves, 
who were being tortured to death because they would not betray him, he 
voluntarily surrendered himself. 
^ Attaching to the triumvirate. 
* Capua, its capital, was the great seat of the unguent and perfume 
manufacture in Italy. 
^ The Phoenix dactylifera of Linnseus. See also B. xii. c. 62, where he 
seems also to allude to this tree. 
^ At the present day this is not the fact. The village of La Bordighiera, 
situate on an eminence of the Apennines, grows great quantities of dates, 
of good quality. At Hieres, Nice, San Eei^jo, and Genoa, they are also 
grown. 
' This, too, is not the fact. The dates of Valencia, Seville, and other 
provinces of Spain, are sweet, and of excellent quality. 
^ Pliny is wrong again in this statement. The date of Barbary, Tunis, 
Algiers, and Bildulgerid, the land of dates," is superior in every respect 
to that of the East. 
^ The Jilthiopians, as we learn from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8. 
