412 
pliny's natueal history. 
[Book XVI. 
one variety of it, known as the cynosbatos,'^ bears a flower 
similar to the rose. There is a third variety, known to the 
Greeks as the Idsean'^^ bramble, from the place w^here it grows : 
it is slighter than the others, with smaller thorns, and not so 
hooked. Its flower, mixed with honey, is employed as an 
ointment for sore eyes and erysipelas : and an infusion of it 
in water is used for diseases of the stomach.*^^ 
The elder'^* bears a small black berry, which contains a vis- 
cous juice, employed more particularly for staining''^^ the hair. 
The berries, too, are boiled in water and eaten.*^* 
CHAP. 72. (38.)— THE JUICES OF TEEES. 
There is a juice in the bark of trees, which must be looked 
upon as their blood, though it is not of a similar nature in ail. 
In the fig it is of a milky consistency, and has the peculiar 
property of curdling milk, and so forming cheese. In the 
cherry-tree this juice is gummy, in the elm clammy, in the 
apple viscous and fatty, while in the vine and the pear it is 
watery. The more viscous this humour is, the more long- 
lived the tree. In a word, we find in the bodies of trees — as 
with all other beings that are animated — skin, blood, flesh, 
sinews, veins, bones, and marrow ; the bark serving them in 
place of skin. It is a singular fact connected with the mul- 
berry-tree, that when the medical men wish to extract its juice, 
if the incision is lightly made, by a blow with a stone, and at 
the second hour of the day in spring, the juice will flow : but 
if, on the other hand, a wound is inflicted to any depth, it has 
all the appearance of being dried up. 
Immediately beneath the bark in most trees there is a fatty 
substance, which, from its colour, has obtained the name of 
alburnum : it is soft, and is the very worst part of the wood, 
Linnaeus ; the same as the Rubus tomentosus, and the Eubus corylifolius 
of other modern botanists. 
The Rosa canina of Linnaeus : the dog-rose or Eglantine. 
'1 The Rubus Idaeus of botanists ; the ordinary raspberry. 
See B. xxiv. c. 75. "^2* See B. xxiv. c. 35. 
'3 They are still used for dyeing, but not for staining the hair. 
Only as a purgative, probably. 
Though the acid it contains would curdle milk, still its natural 
acridity would disqualify it from being used for making cheese. 
'i^ The white sap or inner bark ; the aubier of the French. Fee re- 
marks, that its supposed analogy with fat is incorrect. 
