210 
ploy's natural history. 
[Book xin. 
mere herb is generally understood, while the phyeos" is a 
complete shrub. This plant has a broad leaf of a green co- 
lour, which is by some called **prason,"^^ and by others is 
known as zoster." Another kind,^^ again, has a hairy sort 
of leaf, very similar to fennel, and grows upon rocks, while 
that previously mentioned grows in shoaly spots, not far from 
the shore. Eoth kinds shoot in the spring, and die in autumn.^^ 
The phycos^^ which grows on the rocks in the neighbourhood 
of Crete, is used also for dyeing purple ; the best kind being 
that produced on the north side of the island, which is the 
case also with sponges of the very best quality. A third kind,"*^ 
again, is similar in appearance to grass; the root of it is 
knotted, and so is the stalk, which resembles that of a reed. 
CHAP. 49* THE SEA BRYON. 
There is another kind of marine shrub, known by the name 
of bryon;"^* it has the leaf of the lettuce, only that it is 
of a more wrinkled appearance; it grows nearer land, too, than 
the last. Far out at sea we find a fir-tree and an oak,^^ 
each a cubit in height ; shells are found adhering to their 
branches. It is said that this sea-oak is used for dyeing wool, 
and that some of them even bear acorns in the sea, a fact which 
has been ascertained by shipwrecked persons and divers. There 
are other marine trees also of remarkable size, found in the 
vicinity of Sicyon ; the sea- vine, indeed, grows everywhere. 
The sea-fig is destitute of leaves, and the bark is red. There 
38 The " green plant. ^ 3^ The girdle " plant. 
The Fucus barbatus, probably, of Linnseus, or else the Fucus eroi'des. 
*i They are in reality more long-lived than this. 
*2 Fee suggests that it is the Eoccella tinctoria of Linnaeus. 
^3 The Zostera marina' of Linnaeus, according to Fee. 
The Ulva lactuca of the moderns, a very common sea-weed. 
The Fucus ericoides, Fee suggests, not unlike a fir in appearance. 
Quercus. According to Gmellin, this is the Fucus vesiculosus of Lin- 
naeus. Its leaves are indented, somewhat similarly to those of the oak. 
Polybius, as quoted by Athenaeus, says that in the Lusitanian Sea 
there are oaks that bear acorns, on which the thunnies feed and grow fat. 
^8 On the contrary, Theophrastus says, B. iv. c. 7, that the sea-vine 
grows near the sea, from which Fee is disposed to consider it a phaneroga- 
mous plant. If, on the other hand, it is really a fucus, he thinks that the 
Fucus uvarius may be meant, the vesicles of which resemble a grape in 
shape. 
He speaks of a madrepore, Fee thinks, the identity of which it is 
