[3028] Pliny appears to have made the same error here in compiling from the Greek, as he has done in Chapters 4 and 13, in mistaking the Greek word signifying “scars,” for that meaning “gums.”
[3029] In B. xii. c. 51, and B. xv. c. 7.
[3030] The cyprus, or henna, is but little known in Europe: but it is employed for many purposes in the East. The leaves, which have a powerful smell, are used for the purpose of dyeing and staining various parts of the body.
[3031] Pliny has most probably committed an error here in mentioning the “strutheum,” or sparrow-quince; for the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, B. i. c. 124, speaks of the “struthion,” the Gypsophila struthium of Linnæus, or possibly, as Littré thinks, the Saponaria officinalis. See B. xix. c. [18].
[3032] This, Fée thinks, may probably be the case.
[3033] See B. xv. c. 7.
[3034] In B. xii. c. 54. Balm of Mecca, Fée says, possesses properties little different from the turpentines extracted from the Coniferæ.
[3035] “Tremulis.”
[3036] In B. xii. c. 59. Whatever malobathrum may have been, this was an artificial oil, no doubt.
[3037] “Hyoscyaminum.” A fixed oil with narcotic properties, and most probably, highly dangerous in its effects.