212 
pliny's NATUEAL HISTOEY, [Book XIII. 
dries and turns to salt. They have spoken also of bulrushes^ 
of stone bearing a strong resemblance to real ones, which grew 
along the sea- shore, as also certain shrubs in the main sea, 
the colour of an ox's horn, branching out in various direc- 
tions, and red at the tips. These, they say, were brittle, and 
broke like glass when touched, while, on the other hand, in 
the fire they would become red-hot like iron, and when cool 
resume their original colour. 
In the same part of the earth also, the tide covers the j 
forests that grow on the islands, although the trees there are | 
more lofty than the ver^^ tallest of our planes and poplars ! 
The leaves of these trees resemble that of the laurel, while the i 
blossom is similar to the violet, both in smell and colour : the |j 
berries resemble those of the olive, and they, too, have an 
agreeable smell : they appear in the autumn, and the leaves 
of the trees never fall off. The smaller ones are entirely 
covered by the waves, while the summits of those of larger 
size protrude from the water, and ships are made fast to them ; I 
when the tide falls the vessels are similarly moored to the roots. 
We find the same persons making mention of certain other i 
trees which they saw out at sea, which always retained their i 
leaves, and bore a fruit very similar to the lupine. \ 
CHAP. 52. THE PLANTS OF THE TEOGLODYTIC SEA ; THE HAIE OF ! 
ISIS : THE CHAEITO-BLEPHAEOJf. 
Juba relates, that about the islands of the Troglodytae I 
there is a certain shrub found out at sea, which is Imown as 
the hair of Isis he says that it bears a strong resem- || 
blance to coral, is destitute of leaves, and if cut will change | 
its colour, becoming quite black and hard, and so brittle as to || 
break if it falls. He speaks also of another marine plant, to ' 
which he gives the name of Charito-blepharon/'^^ and which, 
58 Fee hazards a conjecture that this may he the Gorgonia scirpea of 
Pallas, found in the Indian Seas. 
^9 One of the Gorgoniae, Fee thinks ; hut its characteristics are not suf- 
ficiently stated to enable us to identify it. 
60 A fable worthy of Sinbad the Sailor ! 
«i ^< Isidis crineni." Fee says that this is evidently black coral, the Gor- 
gonia antipathes of Linnaeus. 
62 The eyelid of the Graces.'' Fee is almost tempted to think that he 
ra'eaus red coral. 
