CHAP. 36.—THE TRAGION: TRAGACANTHE.
The island of Crete is the only place that produces the shrub called “tragion.”[963] It is similar in appearance to the terebinth;[964] a similarity which extends to the seed even, said to be remarkably efficacious for healing wounds made by arrows. The same island produces tragacanthe[965] also, with a root which resembles that of the white thorn; it is very much preferred[966] to that which is grown in Media or in Achaia; the price at which it sells is three denarii per pound.
CHAP. 37.—THE TRAGOS OR SCORPIO; THE MYRICA OR BRYA; THE OSTRYS.
Asia, too, produces the tragos[967] or scorpio, a thorny shrub, destitute of leaves, with red clusters upon it that are employed in medicine. Italy produces the myrica, which some persons call the “tamarix;”[968] and Achaia, the wild brya,[969] remarkable for the circumstance that it is only the cultivated kind that bears a fruit, not unlike the gall-nut. In Syria and Egypt this plant is very abundant. It is to the trees of this last country that we give the name of “unhappy;”[970] but yet those of Greece are more unhappy still, for that country produces the tree known as “ostrys,” or, as it is sometimes called, “ostrya,”[971] a solitary tree that grows about rocks washed by the water, and very similar in the bark and branches to the ash. It resembles the pear-tree in its leaves, which, however, are a little longer and thicker, with wrinkled indentations running down the whole length of the leaf. The seed of this tree resembles barley in form and colour. The wood is hard and solid; it is said, that if it is introduced into a house, it is productive of painful deliveries and of shocking deaths.
CHAP. 38. (22.)—THE EUONYMOS.
There is no tree productive of a more auspicious presage than one which grows in the Isle of Lesbos, and is known by the name of euonymos.[972] It bears some resemblance to the pomegranate tree, the leaf being in size between the leaf of that and the leaf of the laurel, while in shape and softness it resembles that of the pomegranate tree: it has a white blossom,[973] by which it immediately gives us notice of its dangerous properties.[974] It bears a pod[975] very similar to that of sesame, within which there is a grain of quadrangular shape, of coarse make and poisonous to animals. The leaf, too, has the same noxious effects; sometimes, however, a speedy alvine discharge is found to give relief on such occasions.
CHAP. 39.—THE TREE CALLED EON.
Alexander Cornelius has called a tree by the name of “eon,”[976] with the wood of which, he says, the ship Argo was built. This tree has on it a mistletoe similar to that of the oak, which is proof against all injury from either fire or water, in the same manner, in fact, as that of no other tree known. This tree, however, appears to have been known to no other author, that I am aware of.
CHAP. 40.—THE ANDRACHLE.[977]
Nearly all the Greek writers interpret the name of the tree called “andrachle,” as meaning the same as “purslain:”[978] whereas purslain is, in reality, a herb, and, with the difference of a single letter, is called “andrachne.” The andrachle is a wild tree, which never grows in the plain country, and is similar to the arbute tree in appearance, only that its leaves are smaller, and never fall off. The bark, too, is not rough, but might be taken to be frozen all over, so truly wretched is its appearance.