Chap. 21.] 
THE PAPTUUS. 
185 
tree and the clierry^^ is of an inferior kind, and that which is 
gathered from the phim-tree is the worst of all. The vine, 
too, produces a gum,^^ which is of the greatest utility in healing 
the sores of children ; while that which is sometimes found on 
the olive-tree is used for the tooth- ache. Gum is also found 
on the elm^^ upon Mount Corycus in Cilicia, and upon the 
juniper, but it is good for nothing ; indeed, the gum of the 
elm found there is apt to breed gnats. Erom the sarcocolla^* 
also — such is the name of a certain tree — a gum exudes that is 
remarkably useful to painters and medical men ; it is similar 
to incense dust in appearance, and for those purposes the white 
kind is preferable to the red. The price of it is the same as 
that mentioned above. 
CHAP. 21. THE PAPYllUS I THE USE OE PAPEE ; WHEN IT WAS 
EIKST INVENTED. 
We have not as yet taken any notice of the marsh plants, 
nor yet of the shrubs that grow upon the banks of rivers : 
before quitting Egypt, however, we must make some mention 
of the nature of the papyrus, seeing that all the usages of 
civilized life depend in such a remarkable degree upon the 
employment of paper — at all events, the remembrance of past 
events. M. Yarro informs us that paper owes its discovery to 
89 These gums are chemically different from gum Arabic, and they are 
used for different purposes in the arts. 
^0 The vine does not produce a gum ; but when the sap ascends, a juice 
is secreted, which sometimes becomes solid on the evaporation of the 
aqueous particles. This substance contains acetate of potassa, which, by 
the decomposition of that salt, becomes a carbonate of, the same base. 
91 This is not a gum, but a resinous product of a pecuUar nature. It is 
known to the moderns by the name of " olivine." 
93 The sap of the elm leaves a saline deposit on the bark, principally 
formed of carbonate of potassa. Fee is at a loss to know whether Pliny 
here alludes to this or to the manna which is incidentally formed by certain 
insects on some trees and reeds. But, as he justly says, would Pliny say 
of the latter that it is ad nihil utile" — *' good for nothing".^ 
A resinous product, no doubt. The frankincense of Africa has been 
attributed by some to the Juniperus Lycia and Phoenicia. 
The Penaea Sarcocolla of Linnaeus. The gum resin of this tree is 
still brou,o-ht from Abyssinia, but it is not used in medicine. This account 
is from Dioscorides, B. iii. c. 99. The name is from the Greek (rdp^, 
*' flesh," and /coXXa, ^'glue." 
95 See B. xxiv. e. 78 . 96 Three denarii per pound. 
