330 
pluty's natueal histoet. 
[Book XV. 
to Venus Myrtea, known at the present day by the name of 
Murcia. 
CHAP. 37. ELEYEN YAKIETIES OF THE MTETLE. 
Cato makes mention of three varieties of the myrtle, the 
black, white, and the conjugula, perhaps so called from 
its reference to conjugal unions, and belonging to the same 
species as that which grew where Cluacina's statues now 
stand : at the present day the varieties are differently distin- 
guished into the cultivated and the wild myrtle, each of 
which includes a kind with a large leaf. The kind known as 
oxymyrsine,''^* belongs only to the wild variety : ornamental 
gardeners classify several varieties of the cultivated kind ; the 
Tarentine,"'^^ they speak of as a myrtle with a small leaf, 
the myrtle of this country as having a broad leaf, and the 
hexasticha^^ as being very thickly covered with leaves, growing 
in rows of six ; it is not, however, made any use of. There 
are two other kinds, that are branchy and well covered. In 
my opinion, the conjugula is the same that is now called the 
Eoman myrtle. It is in Egypt that the myrtle is most 
odoriferous. 
Cato"^^ has taught us how to make a wine from the black 
myrtle, by drying it thoroughly in the shade, and then putting 
it in must : he says, also, that if the berries are not quite dry, 
it will produce an oil. Since his time a method has been dis- 
covered of making a pale wine from the white variety; two 
sextarii of pounded myrtle are steeped in three semi-sextarii of 
wine, and the mixture is then subjected to pressure. 
The leaves*^ also are dried by themselves till they are capa- 
ble of being reduced to a powder, which is used for the treat- 
ment of sores on the human body : this powder is of a slightly 
corrosive nature, and is employed also for the purpose of 
checking the perspiration. A thing that is still more re- 
42 Be Re Eust. c. 8, 
*3 The so-called wild myrtle does not in reality belong to the genus 
Myrtus. 
See B. xxiii. c. 83 ; the Euscus aculeatus of the family of the Asparagea. 
The common myrtle, Myrtus communis of the naturalists. 
46 Or Eoman myrtle, a variety of the Myrtus communis. 
The "six row" myrtle. Fee thinks that it belongs to the Myrtus 
an2:ustifolia Boetica of Bauhin. 
Be Ke Eust. 12-5. *9 See B. xxiii. c. 81. 
