[908] See B. xxxiii. c. 5.
[909] He implies that it could not have been written upon paper, as the papyrus and the districts which produced it were not in existence in the time of Homer. No doubt this so-called letter, if shown at all, was a forgery, a “pia fraus.” See c. [21] of the present Book.
[910] Il. B. vi. l. 168.
[911] “Codicillos,” as meaning characters written on a surface of wood. πίναξ, as Homer calls it.
[912] It was probably then that the supply of it first began to fail; in the sixth century it was still used, but by the twelfth it had wholly fallen into disuse.
[913] The cotton-tree, Gossypium arboreum of Linnæus.
[914] See B. xii. c. [21], [22].
[915] In c. [9] of the present Book.
[916] See B. vi. c. 36, 37.
[917] Desfontaines observed in the vicinity of Atlas, several trees peculiar to that district. Among others of this nature, he names the Pistacia Atlantica, and the Thuya articulata.