[2951] “Without flaw.”
[2953] “Succinum.” It is of vegetable origin, and, according to Göppert, was originally the viscous resin of a tree named by him Pinites succinifer.
[2954] It is used by men, more particularly, at the present day, as a mouthpiece for pipes.
[2955] As to the vegetable origin of amber, there is no doubt that the ancients were right.
[2956] Most probably from ἥλιος, the “sun.” Phaëthon was fabled to have been the son of Apollo. See the story in Ovid’s Met. B. ii. l. 340, et seq.
[2957] Where amber was not to be found.
[2958] In reality, these “Amber Islands” were situate at the mouth of the Vistula, into which the Radanus discharged itself; a river whose name was afterwards confounded with “Eridanus,” the ancient name of the Padus, or Po. See B. iv. cc. 27, 30, as to the produce of amber in the Baltic.
[2959] Another reference to its vegetable origin.
[2960] De Lapid. n. 53.