[788] Fée remarks, that this account is quite erroneous.
[789] This he copies also from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.
[790] Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8, mentions this as a kind of date peculiar to Cyprus.
[791] This is said solely in relation to the date of Cyprus.
[792] Or “dwellers in tents;” similar to the modern Bedouins.
[793] Fée remarks, that in these words we find the first germs of the sexual system that has been established by the modern botanists. He thinks that it is clearly shown by this account, that Pliny was acquainted with the fecundation of plants by the agency of the pollen.
[794] In allusion to the pollen, possibly. See the last [Note].
[795] “Lanugine.” It is possible that in the use of this word, also, he may allude to the pollen. Under the term “pulvis,” “dust,” he probably alludes in exaggerated terms to the same theory.
[796] The same methods of propagating the palm are still followed in the East, and in the countries near the tropics.
[797] In c. [7] of the present Book. See also B. xvii. c. [3].