Of the Hiftorie of Plants. 
L iB.3. 
Chap. 84. Of the Lcntisf^or zJvfaflwke tree. 
ThcDefcription. 
Lem i fan. «j The Defcriptiou. 
The Mafticke tree. 
T He Maftick tree grovveth commonly like a 
flrrub without any great body,rifmg vp with 
many fprings and (hoots like the Hafell ; and 
oftentimes it is of the height and bignefle of a 
meanetree: theboughes thereof are tough, and 
flexible ; the barke is of a yellowifh red colour, 
pliable likewife, and hard to be broken : there 
llandvpon one rib for the moft part 8 leaues, 
fetvpon a middle rib, much like to the leaues of 
Licorice, but harder, of a deepegreene colour, 
and oftentimes fomewhat redin the brims, as 
alfo hauing diuers vains running along of a red 
colour, and fomthing ftrong of fmel: the floures 
be mo(fie,and grow in clufters vpon long Items : 
after them come vp the berries, of the bignefle 
ofVetches, greeneat thefirft, afterwards of a 
purple colour, and laft of all, black, fat, and oily, 
with a hard black (lone within ; the kernel wher- 
ofis white, ofivhich alfo ismadeoile,as Diefco- 
rides witneffethut bringeth forth likewife cods 
befides the fruit (which maybe rather termed 
an excrefcence, than a cod)writhed like a horn j 
in which lieth at the firft a liquour, and after- 
wards when this waxeth Hale, little liuing 
things likevnto gnats, as in the Turpentine 
homes, and in the folded leaues ofthe Elm tree. 
There commeth forth of the Maftick tree a Ro» 
fin, but dry, called Mafticke. 
•[ The place. 
The Mafticke tree groweth in many regions, as in Syria, Candy, Italy.Languedocke, and in moft 
Prouincesof Spainc : but thechiefeftis in Chios an Ifiand in Greece, in which iris diligently and 
fpecially looked vnto,and that for the Mafticke fake, which is there gathered from the husbanded 
Mafticke trees by the inhabitants cilery yeare moft carefully, and is fent from thence into all parts 
ofthe world. 
*j The Time. 
The floures be in their pride in the fpring time, and the berries in Autumne:the Maftick muft be 
gathered about the time when the Grapes be. 
The Names. 
This tree is named in Greeke*'.«: in Latine, Lentifcus •• inltalian,£e»?//^«r .• in Spanilh, Mata, 
and Arcoya : in Englilh, Mafticke trce ; and of fome,Lentiske tree. 
The Rofin is called in Greeke fuTlVK > and : in Lannefentifcina Kefipajtnd likewife, Afay?/- 
the : in (hcrps,Mafix ; in Italian,A/a//« in high and low Dutch and French alfo, Mafic : in Spa- 
nifh, AlmaftigajMaflech , and i Mlmccega : in Englifh, Mafticke. 
Clufias writeth, that the Spaniards call the oile that is prefted out ofthe berries, ae 
Mata. 
The Temperature. 
The Ieaues,barke,and gum of the Mafticke tree are of a meane and temperate heate, and are drie 
in the fecond degree, and fomewhat aftringent. 
TheVertues. 
f\ The leaues and barke of the Mafticke tree ftoppe thelaske, thebloudy fiixe, thefpittingof 
bloud, 
