49. With respect to Pine-cones.—Mnesitheus, the Athenian physician, in his book on Comestibles, calls the husks of the pine-cones ὀστρακίδες, and in another place he calls them κῶνοι. But Diocles of Carystus calls them πιτüίνα κάρυα, nuts of the pine-tree. And Alexander the Myndian calls them πιτυΐνους κώνους. And Theophrastus calls the tree πεύκη, and the fruit κῶνος. But Hippocrates, in his book on Barley-water,—(one half of which is considered spurious by everybody, and some people reckon the whole so,)—calls the fruit κόκκαλοι; but most people call it πυρῆνες: as Herodotus does, in speaking of the Pontic nut. For he says, "And this has πυρῆνα (a kernel), when it becomes ripe." But Diphilus the Siphnian says, "Pine-cones" (which he calls στρόβιλοι) "are very nutritious, and have a tendency to soften the arteries, and to relieve the chest, because they have some resinous qualities contained in them." While Mnesitheus says that they fill the body with fat, and are very free from all hindrances to the digestion; and, moreover, that they are diuretic, and that they are free from all astringent tendencies.
50. Now with respect to Eggs.—Anaxagoras, in his book on Natural Philosophy, says that what is called the milk of the bird is the white which is in the eggs. And Aristophanes says—
In the first instance, night brings forth a wind egg.
Sappho dissolves the word ὦον into a trisyllable, making it ὤïον, when she says—
They say that formerly Leda found an egg.
And again she says—
Far whiter than an egg:
in each case writing ὤïον. But Epicharmus spelt the word ὤεα; for so we find the line written—
The eggs of geese and other poultry.
And Simonides, in the second book of his Iambics, says—