[540] For some further account of this substance, see B. xxix. c. 10. Filthy as it was, the œsypum, or sweat and grease of sheep, was used by the Roman ladies as one of their most choice cosmetics. Ovid, in his “Art of Love,” more than once inveighs against the use of it.
[541] From the Greek ἔναιμον, “styptic,” or “blood-stopping.” It is at the present day called gum “de lecce” in Italy. Fée says that it is not often procured from the olive-trees of France, though it is found very commonly on those of Naples and Calabria. It has no active powers, he says, as a medicine.
[542] Hardouin suggests that they may be the pelagiæ, mentioned again in B. xiii. c. 51.
[543] See B. vi. c. 31.
[544] Although the savin shrub, the Juniperus Sabina of Linnæus, bears this name in Greek, it is evident, as Fée says, that Pliny does not allude to it, but to a coniferous tree, as it is that family which produces a resinous wood with a balsamic odour when ignited. Bauhin and others would make the tree meant to be the Thuya occidentalis of Linnæus; but, as Fée observes, that tree is in reality a native originally of Canada, while the Thuya orientalis is a native of Japan. He suggests, however, that the Thuya articulata of Mount Atlas may have possibly been the citrus of Pliny.
[545] See end of B. v.
[546] All these are mentioned in B. vi. c. 31.
[547] It is not known what wood is meant under this name. Aloe, and some other woods, when ignited are slightly narcotic.
[548] See B. v. c. 21.
[549] See B. vi. c. 30.