396 
PLINY S NATUJIAL HISTOIIT. 
[Book XVI. 
in every locality, nor will they live, many of them,'^^ when 
transplanted : this happens sometimes through a natural an- 
tipathy on the part of the tree, sometimes through an innate 
stubbornness, but more frequently through the weakness of 
the variety so transplanted, either the climate being unfavour- 
able, or the soil repulsive to it. 
CHAP. 59. PLANTS THAT WILL NOT GEOW IN CEKTAIN PLACES. 
Balsamum"^^ will grow nowhere but [in"^* Judsea] : and the 
citron of Assyria refuses to bear fruit in any other country. 
The palm, too, will not grow everywhere, and even if it does 
grow in some places, it will not bear : sometimes, indeed, it 
may make a show and promise of bearing, but even then its 
fruit comes to nothing, it seeming to have borne them thus far 
in spite of itself. The cinnamon shrub has not sufficient 
strength to acclimatize itself in the countries that lie in the 
vicinity of Syria. Amomum,"^® too, and nard,^"^ those most 
delicate of perfumes, will not endure the carriage from India 
to Arabia, nor yet conveyance by sea ; indeed, Xing Seleucus 
did make the attempt, but in vain. But what is more parti- 
cularly wonderful, is the fact that most of the trees by care 
may be prevailed upon to live when transplanted ; for some- 
times the soil may be so managed as to nourish the foreigner 
and give support to the stranger plant ; climate, however, can 
never be changed. The pepper-tree''^^ will live in Italy, and 
cassia'^ in the northern climates even, while the incense- tree^^ 
'2 It is not improbable that he has in view here the passage in Virgil's 
Georgics, B. ii. 1. 109, et seq. 
'^^ Or balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c. 54. Bruce assures us that it is 
indigenous to Abyssinia ; if so, it has been transplanted in Arabia. It is 
no more to be found in Judaea. 
This is inserted, as it is evident that the text without it is imperfect. 
Fee says that even in Judaea it was transplanted from Arabia. 
''^ As to the identification of the cinnamomum of Pliny, see B. xii. cc. 
41 and 42, and the Notes. 
As to the question of the identity of the amomum, see B. xii. c. 28. 
77 See B. xii. c. 26. 
78 This cannot be the ordinary Piper nigrum, or black pepper, which 
does not deserve the title arbor." It is, no doubt, the pepper of Italy, 
which he mentions in B. xii. c. 14. 
79 Xhe Cassia Italica, probably, of B. xii. c. 43. The cassia of the East 
could not possibly survive in Italy. The fact is, no doubt, tbat the llomans 
gnve the names of cassia, piper, and amomum, to certain indigenous plants, 
nnd then persuaded themselves that they had the genuine plants of the 
East. so See B, xii. c. 30. 
