CHAP. 12.—THE KERMES BERRY.
The holm oak, however, by its scarlet berry[2272] alone challenges competition with all these manifold productions. This grain appears at first sight to be a roughness on the surface of the tree, as it were, a small kind of the aquifolia[2273] variety of holm oak, known as the cusculium.[2274] To the poor in Spain it furnishes[2275] the means of paying one half of their tribute. We have already, when speaking[2276] of the purple of the murex, mentioned the best methods adopted for using it. It is produced also in Galatia, Africa, Pisidia, and Cilicia: the most inferior kind is that of Sardinia.