[838] This is not the case.
[839] This appears to be doubtful, although, as Fée says, the fruit ripens but very slowly.
[840] This, Fée says, is a fallacy.
[841] “Aliam omnem.” This reading seems to be very doubtful.
[842] This wood was very extensively used in Egypt for making the outer cases, or coffins, in which the mummies were enclosed.
[843] This account is borrowed almost entirely from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 2. A variety of the sycamore is probably meant. It is still found in the Isle of Crete.
[844] He seems to mean that the buds do not shoot forth into leaves; the reading, however, varies in the editions, and is extremely doubtful.
[845] Grossus.
[846] The Ceratonia siliqua of Linnæus. It is of the same size as the sycamore, but resembles it in no other respect. It is still common in the localities mentioned by Pliny, and in the south of Spain.
[847] Theophrastus in the number, Hist. Plant. i. 23, and iv. 2. It bears no resemblance to the fig-tree, and the fruit is totally different from the fig. Pliny, too, is wrong in saying that it does not grow in Egypt; the fact being that it is found there in great abundance.