Notes

Papaver

Hieracium pilosella L.

Pilosella major
Nagelkraut

Hieracia

Communia autem sponte nascentibus candor, caulis interdum cubitali longitudine, thyrso et foliis scabritia. ex iis rotunda folia et brevia habentem sunt qui hieracion vocent, quoniam accipitres scalpendo eam sucoque oculos tinguendo obscuritatem, cum sensere, discutiant. sucus omnibus candidus, viribus quoque papaveri similis, carpitur per messes inciso caule, conditur fictili novo, ad multa praeclarus. sanat omnia oculorum vitia cum lacte mulierum, argema, nubiculas, cicatrices adustionesque omnes, praecipue caligines. inponitur etiam oculis in lana contra epiphoras. idem sucus alvum purgat in posca potus ad duos obolos.

The characteristics, however, common to the wild kinds [of lettuce] are whiteness, a stem occasionally a cubit long, and a roughness on the stalk and on the leaves. Of these kinds, one with round, short leaves is called by some hieracion (hawkweed), since hawks, by tearing it open and wetting their eyes with the juice, dispel poor vision when they have become conscious of it. The juice in all of them is white, in its properties, also, like that of the poppy; collected at harvest by cutting the stem, it is stored in new earthenware, being excellent for many purposes. With woman’s milk it heals all eye-diseases—white ulcers, films, all wounds and inflammations, and especially dimness of sight. It is also applied to the eyes on wool for fluxes. The same juice purges the bowels if drunk in vinegar and water in doses not exceeding two oboli.

Hieracia

Pliny xx. 7, § 26.

hieracia

De ίέραξ, épervier: on préntendait que l’épervier s’en servait pour éclaircir sa vue: «Hieraciam vocent quoniam accipitres scalpendo eam succoque oculos tingendo obscuritatem, quum sensere, discuitant». Pline, XX, 26. L’espèce à feuilles courtes et rondes dont parle Pline est une Crepis. L’ίέράχιον μιχρόν de Dioscoride (III, 73) peut être une Crepis (C. virens, Vill. ?), une Picris ou un Hieracium. Ce dernier nom est celui d’un genre très nombreux de la famille des Composées, dont l’espèce la plus usitée dans l’ancienne matière médicale était H. pilosella, L. L’hieracia de Rabelais est, pour Sainéan, Tragopogon picroides, L. (H.N.R., 120).

hieracia

thus hieracia, from the Greek word for hawk, thanks to which that bird sharpened its sight…

par les admirables qualitez

Cf. encore, De latinis nominibus pour tous ces détails. Le seule exemple qui ne s’explique pas de soi-même est hieracia; «Hieracum nomen ex eo venit quod [l’epevier] succo hujus herbae oculorum obscuritatem discutiant». Eryngion (« barbe à bouc ») serait un contrepoison. Que-fait-il dans cette liste?

Hieracia

De ἰέφαξ, «épervier»; l’épervier s’er servirait pour s’éclaircir la vue (Pline, XX, xxvi).

Hieracium

Hieracium. [Latin, adopted from Greek ierakion name of a plant, formed on ierac hawk.]

A large genus of Composite plants, mostly with yellow flowers; called in English, Hawkweed.

Notes

Elitropium

Elitropium (text)

Kalendula

Kalendula (text)

Heliotropium

Heliotropium europaeum L. [as Heliotropium majus]

heliotrope

miretur hoc qui non observet cotidiano experimento herbam unam, quae vocatur heliotropium, abeuntem solem intueri semper omnibusque horis cum eo verti vel nubilo obumbrante.

This may surprise one who does not notice in daily experience that one plant, called heliotrope, always looks towards the sun as it passes and at every hour of the day turns with it, even when it is obscured by a cloud

heliotrope

Iam vergilias in caelo notabiles caterva fecerat; non tamen his contenta terrestres fecit alias, veluti vociferans: ‘Cur caelum intuearis, agricola? cur sidera quaeras, rustice? iam te breviore somno fessum premunt noctes. ecce tibi inter herbas tuas spargo peculiares stellas easque vespera et ab opere disiungenti ostendo ac ne possis praeterire miraculo sollicito: videsne ut fulgor igni similis alarum conpressu obtegatur secumque lucem habeant et nocte dedi tibi herbas horarum indices et, ut ne sole quidem oculos tuos terra avoces, heliotropium ac lupinum circumaguntur cum illo. cur etiamnum altius spectes ipsumque caelum scrutere? habes ante pedes tuos ecce vergilias.’ incertis hae diebus proveniunt durantque, sed esse sideris huiusce partum eas certum est. proinde quisquis aestivos fructus ante illas severit ‘ipse frustrabitur sese.’ hoc intervallo et apicula procedens fabam florere indicat, fabaque florescens eam evocat. dabitur et aliud finiti frigoris indicium: cum germinare videris morum, iniuriam postea frigoris timere nolito.

She [Nature] had already formed the remarkable group of the Pleiads in the sky; yet not content with these she has made other stars on the earth, as though crying aloud: ‘Why gaze at the heavens, husbandman? Why, rustic, search for the stars? Already the slumber laid on you by the nights in your fatigue is shorter. Lo and behold, I scatter special stars for you among your plants, and I display them to you in the evening and as you unyoke to leave off work, and I stimulate your attention by a marvel so that you may not be able to pass them by: do you see how their fire-like brilliance is screened by their folded wings, and how they carry daylight with them even in the night? I have given you plants that mark the hours, and in order that you may not even have to avert your eyes from the earth to look at the sun, the heliotrope and the lupine revolve keeping time with him. Why then do you still look higher and scan the heavens themselves? Lo! you have Pleiads at your very feet.’ Glow-worms do not make their appearance on fixed days or last a definite period, but certain it is that they are the offspring of this particular constellation. Consequently anybody who does his summer sowing before they appear ‘will have himself to thank for labour wasted’. In this interval also the little bee comes forth and announces that the bean is flowering, and the bean begins to flower to tempt her out. We will also give another sign of cold weather being ended: when you see the mulberry budding, after that you need not fear damage from cold.

heliotrope

Heliotropi miraculum saepius diximus cum sole se circumagentis etiam nubilo die, tantus sideris amor est. noctu velut desiderio contrahit caeruleum florem.

I have spoken more than once [See II. § 109, XVIII. § 252] of the marvel of heliotropium, which turns round with the sun even on a cloudy day, so great a love it has for that luminary. At night it closes its blue flower as though it mourned [Or, “were afflicted with longing”].

Espanir

To blow, or spread, as a blooming Rose, or any other flower, in the height of it flourishing; also, to display, stretch, or spread out.

Solsy

Soulcy ou souci: du latin solsequium, mot composé de sol et sequi, qui suit le soleil; comme heliotrope vient du grec λιοζ[?], sol, et τρίπσ[?], verto, flos ad solem se convertens.

Espanir

Espanir, espennir, verbe. Refl., s’ouvrir, s’épanouir, se dilater, eclater:

Ce fu en jung, par un lundi
Qi le solaus clers s’espani.
— Parton., 2361, Crapelet

La rose espanissoit chacun jor devant sa fenestre. (Lancelot, ms Fribourg, fo. 59)

Heliotrope

Pliny ii. 41, § 41; Ov. Met. iv. 256-270.

heliotrope

“But Clytie, though love could excuse her grief, and grief her tattling, was sought no more by the great light-giver, nor did he find aught to love in her. Thereafter she pined away, her love turned to madness. Unable to endure her sister nymphs, beneath the open sky, by night and day, she sat upon the bare ground, naked, bareheaded, unkempt. For nine whole days she sat, tasting neither drink nor food, her hunger fed by naught save pure dew and tears, and moved not from the ground. Only she gazed on the face of her god as he went his way, and turned her face towards him. They say that her limbs grew fast to the soil and her deathly pallor changed in part to a bloodless plant; but in part ’twas red, and a flower, much like a violet, came where her face had been. Still, though roots hold her fast, she turns ever towards the sun and, though changed herself, preserves her love unchanged.” The story-teller ceased; the wonderful tale had held their ears. Some of the sisters say that such things could not happen; others declare that true gods can do anything. But Bacchus is not one of these.
Alcithoë is next called for when the sisters have become silent again. Running her shuttle swiftly through the threads of her loom, she said: “I will pass by the well-known love of Daphnis, the shepherd-boy of Ida, whom a nymph, in anger at her rival, changed to stone: so great is the burning smart which jealous lovers feel. Nor will I tell how once Sithon, the natural laws reversed, lived of changing sex, now woman and now man. How you also, Celmis, now adamant, were once most faithful friend of little Jove; how the Curetes sprang from copious showers; how Crocus and his beloved Smilax were changed into tiny flowers. All these stories I will pass by and will charm your minds with a tale that is pleasing because new.
“How the fountain of Salmacis is of ill-repute, how it enervates with its enfeebling waters and renders soft and weak all men who bathe therein, you shall now hear. The cause is hidden; but the enfeebling power of the fountain is well known. A little son of Hermes and of the goddess of Cythera the naiads nursed within Ida’s caves. In his fair face mother and father could be clearly seen; his name also he took from them. When fifteen years had passed, he left his native mountains and abandoned his foster-mother, Ida, delighting to wander in unknown lands and to see strange rivers, his eagerness making light of toil. He came even to the Lycian cities and to the Carians, who dwell hard by the land of Lycia. Here he saw a pool of water crystal clear to the very bottom. No marshy reeds grew there, no unfruitful swamp-grass, nor spiky rushes; it is clear water. But the edges of the pool are bordered with fresh grass, and herbage ever green. A nymph dwells in the pool, one that loves not hunting, nor is wont to bend the bow or strive with speed of foot. She only of the naiads follows not in swift Diana’s train. Often, ’tis said, her sisters would chide her: ‘Salmacis, take now either hunting-spear or painted quiver, and vary your ease with the hardships of the hunt.’ But she takes no hunting-spear, no painted quiver, nor does she vary her ease with the hardships of the hunt; but at times she bathes her shapely limbs in her own pool; often combs her hair with a boxwood comb, often looks in the mirror-like waters to see what best becomes her. Now, wrapped in a transparent robe, she lies down to rest on the soft grass or the soft herbage. Often she gathers flowers; and on this occasion, too, she chanced to be gathering flowers when she saw the boy and longed to possess what she saw.

heliotrope

«Heliotropii miraculum sæpius diximus, cum sole se circumagentis, etiam nubilo die». Pline, XXII, 29. Pline en distingue deux espèces: l’helioscopium ou verrucaria qui est, pour Fée, notre herbe aux verrues, Heliotropium europæum, L.; et le tricoccum qui est, pour Fée. le tournesol, Croton tinctorium, L. Crozophora tinctoria Neck. L’héliotrope est trop diversement décrit par les anciens pour que ces identifications soient certaines: Hœfer veut voir dans le Soleil (Helianthus annuus, L.) l’heliotropium de Dioscorde et Pline, oubliant que c’est une plante du Pérou. Reutter dit que l’Heliotropium des contemporains de Théophraste et d’Horace est la plante dite Sponsa solis, solsequium, notre chicorée sauvage, Cichorium intybus, L. Quant à Rabelais, il se soucie assez peu de préciser des plantes qu’il ne cite que par parade d’érudition: H. Sainéan (H. N. R., p. 120) pense que son Héliotrope est H. europæum; mais je ne sache pas que celui-ci ait jamais porté le nom de Souci. On lit dans Matthiole que le nom d’heliotropium fut parfois appliqué a un Catha: or, le Catha poetarum de Pene et Lobel est bien notre Calendula arvensis, L., ou souci. (Paul Delaunay).

par les admirables qualitez

Cf. encore, De latinis nominibus pour tous ces détails. Le seule exemple qui ne s’explique pas de soi-même est hieracia; «Hieracum nomen ex eo venit quod [l’epevier] succo hujus herbae oculorum obscuritatem discutiant». Eryngion (« barbe à bouc ») serait un contrepoison. Que-fait-il dans cette liste?

Heliotrope

Pline, XXII, xxix.

heliotrope

heliotrope. Forms: eliotropus, elitropium, -ius, eliotropia, helytropium, heliotropion. [Formerly in Lat. form heliotropium, etc., adopted from Greek heliotropion, a plant which turns its flowers and leaves to the sun, heliotrope; also a green stone streaked with red, bloodstone, and a kind of sundial; formed on helioj sun + –tropoj turning, trepein to turn. In current form, adopted from French héliotrope (16th century in Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire général de la langue française).]

A name given to plants of which the flowers turn so as to follow the sun; in early times applied to the sunflower, marigold, etc.; now, a plant of the genus Heliotropium (N.O. Ehretiaceæ or Boraginaceæ), comprising herbs or shrubs with small clustered purple flowers.

Mineralogy. A green variety of quartz, with spots or veins of red jasper; also called bloodstone; anciently credited with various `virtues’, as that of stanching blood, rendering the wearer invisible, etc. (As to the origin of the name see quot. 1601.)

Notes

Jusquiamus

Plate 72

Jusquiamus

Jusquiamus (text)

henbane

Hyoscyamus niger.
Blacke Henbane.
Hyoscyamus albus.
White Henbane.

Taxon: Hyosciamus albus L.

Henbane

Henbane is another name for hyoscyamos.

hanebanes

Ce nom désigne la jusquiame, et semble être rapporté a Hyoscyamus niger, L. Il dérive pour les uns, de l’arabe Hanab; pour Sainéan du dialecte wallon; pour Gentil, de l’anglais han ban, tue poule (semence mortelle pour les poules). On retrouve la forme hannebanne dans l’Agriculture et maison rustique de Ch. Estienne et J. Liébaut, l. I, ch. 8. (Paul Delaunay)

lichen

Le mot lichen (λειχὴν), déjà employé par Hippocrate, désigne des affections cutanées ou dartres de nature fort diverse, et différentes du groupe de dermatoses auquel les nosographes modernes ont réservé le nom de lichen. Des textes de Dioscoride, Pline et Galien, il ressort que ce vocable fut transféré de la pathologie à la botanique, et après avoir désignee les dartres, s’appliqua à des cryptogames, à thalle circiné, farineux ou crustacé, simulant l’aspect des lésions cutanées. De plus, de par la théorie des analogies, ceux-là guérirent celles-ci. « In iis [prunis sylvestribus] et sativis prunis est limuis arborum uem Græci lichena appellant, rhagadiis et condylomatis vere utilis », dit Pline, XXIII, 69. Ce lichen du prunellier pourrait ètre Evernia prunastri, Auch. Par contre, les 2 var. de lichen que Pline mentionne ailleurs, XXVI, 10, ne semblent point se rapporter à des lichens, mais plutôt a des Hépatiques : Marchantia polymorpha, L., et M. stellata, Scop. (Paul Delaunay)

nommés pas leurs vertus et operations

Sauf pour le lichen, tous les détails sont dans De latinis nominibus («Alysson … dicitur (ut ait Galenus) quod mirifice morsus a cane rabido curet. [gk] enim rabiem significat. Ephemerium… quo die sumptum fuerit (ut nominis ipsa ratio ostendit) intermit. Bechion autem appellatum est, quod [gk], id es tusses … juvet. Nasturtium, cresson alenois … dicitur a torquendis naribus. Hyoscame, faba suis, vulgo hannebane, … dicitur … quot pastu ejus convellantur sues ». R. a mal lu ses notes, faisant de hanebanes une plante différente de l’hyoscame.

nommeés par leurs vertus

Le livre d’Estienne fournit toutes ces informations, lichen excepté. Rabelais se souvient sans doubt, sur ce dernier point, d’un auteur qu’il a partiellement édité: Manardi, Epistolae medicinales, XVIII, 3. — Hyoscyame («fève de pourceau») et hanebanes sont même chose, mais les deux noms n’ont pas le même sens. Le second fera encore écrire à Nicot: «Hanebane […] est poison aux poules, de sorte que si le grain qui leur est donné en est frotté, elles meurent. L’Anglois dit Henbene, qui signifie Poison aux Gelines, ou Mort à Gelines.»

henbane

henbane. Also hennebone, henebon, henneban(e, henban, (hen(n)esbane), henbayne. [formed on hen + bane.]

The common name of the annual plant Hyoscyamus niger, a native of Europe and northern Asia, growing on waste ground, having dull yellow flowers streaked with purple, viscid stem and leaves, unpleasant smell, and narcotic and poisonous properties; also extended to the genus as a whole.

Notes

Jusquiamus

Plate 72

Jusquiamus

Menta platearius

Papaver

Jusquiamus (text)

henbane

Hyoscyamus niger.
Blacke Henbane.
Hyoscyamus albus.
White Henbane.

Taxon: Hyosciamus albus L.

hyoscyame

Herculi eam quoque adscribunt quae apollinaris apud alios, apud nos altercum, apud Graecos vero hyoscyamos appellatur. plura eius genera: unum nigro semine, floribus paene purpureis, spinoso calyce; nascitur in Galatia. vulgare autem candidius est et fruticosius, altius papavere. tertii semen irionis semini simile, sed omnia insaniam gignentia capitisque vertigines. quartum genus molle, lanuginosum, pinguius ceteris, candidi seminis, in maritimis nascens. hoc recepere medici, item rufi seminis. nonnumquam autem candidum rufescit, si non ematuruit, inprobaturque, et alioqui nullum nisi cum inaruit legitur. natura vini ideoque mentem caputque infestans. usus seminis et per se et suco expresso. exprimitur separatim et caulibus foliisque. utuntur et radice, temeraria in totum, ut arbitror, medicina. quippe etiam foliis constat mentem corrumpi, si plura quam quattuor bibant; bibebant etiam antiqui in vino febrim depelli arbitrantes. oleum fit ex semine, ut diximus, quod ipsum auribus infusum temptat mentem, mireque ut contra venenum remedia prodidere iis qui id bibissent et ipsum pro remediis, adeo nullo omnia experiendi fine ut cogerent3 etiam venena prodesse.

To Hercules too they ascribe the plant which is called apollinaris by some, altercum by us Romans [I have adopted here the emendation of Urlichs, omitting, however, his a rabulis. Pseudo-Dioscorides, IV. RV 68 (Wellmann), has twenty names for hyoscyamos, including ἐμμανές, Ἀπολλινάρις and ἰνσάνα. A copyist or commentator might be tempted to add a few of these, and perhaps the vulgate text arose in this way. To see in the corrupt arabilis or arbilis of three MSS. a reference to the madness supposed to be caused by hyoscyamos is natural; hence the a rabie of Mayhoff. But the variations in the MSS. have the appearance of corrupt glosses. The curious a rabulis of Urlichs supposes a connection between altercum and altercor.], but by the Greeks hyoscyamos (“pig’s bean”). There are several kinds of it: one has black seed, with flowers that are almost purple, and a thorny calyx, growing in Galatia. The common kind, however, is whiter and more bushy; it is taller than the poppy. The seed of the third kind is like the seed of irio; but all kinds cause insanity and giddiness. A fourth kind is soft, downy, richer in juice than the others, with a white seed, and growing in places near the sea. This is a kind that medical men have adopted, as they have that with a red seed. Sometimes, however, the white seed turns red if gathered before getting ripe, and then it is rejected; and generally no kind is ever gathered before it has become dry. It has the character of wine, and therefore injures the head and brain. Use is made of the seed as it is or when the juice has been extracted from it. The juice is extracted separately also from the stems and leaves. They also use the root, but the drug is, in my opinion, a dangerous medicine in any form. In fact, it is well known that even the leaves affect the brain if more than four are taken in drink; yet the ancients used to take them in wine under the impression that fever was so brought down. An oil is made from the seed, as I have said, which by itself if poured into the ears deranges the brain. It is a wonderful thing that they have prescribed remedies for those who have taken the drink, which implies that it is a poison, and yet have included it among remedies; so unwearied have been researches in making every possible experiment, even to compelling poisons to be helpful remedies.

Hyoscamus (Pig-nuts)

Pliny xxv. 4, § 35.

hyoscyame

De ὖζ, oirx, χύαμοζ, fève, fève de porc. Élien dit que les sanglier quio en ont mangé sont atteints de mouvements convulsifs, et contraints d’aller boire et se baigner. «Apollinaris, apud Arabas altercum, apud Græcos vero hyoscyamus appellatur». Pline, XXV, 17. Pline en mentionne plusieurs espèces, toutes de notre genus Hyoscyamus ou jusquaime, et que Rabelais ne distingue pas autrement. Cependant, si le mot Hanebane ci-dessous désigne H. niger, la jusquiame que vise ici Rabelais est autre : probablement H. albus, L., du Midi. (Paul Delaunay)

hyoscyama

thus hyoscyama, derived from Greek words meaning swine and bean (wild boars eat it and go into convulsions!)…

nommés pas leurs vertus et operations

Sauf pour le lichen, tous les détails sont dans De latinis nominibus («Alysson … dicitur (ut ait Galenus) quod mirifice morsus a cane rabido curet. [gk] enim rabiem significat. Ephemerium… quo die sumptum fuerit (ut nominis ipsa ratio ostendit) intermit. Bechion autem appellatum est, quod [gk], id es tusses … juvet. Nasturtium, cresson alenois … dicitur a torquendis naribus. Hyoscame, faba suis, vulgo hannebane, … dicitur … quot pastu ejus convellantur sues ». R. a mal lu ses notes, faisant de hanebanes une plante différente de l’hyoscame.

Hyoscyame,

De ὓζ, « porc », et χύαμοζ, « fève » (Pline, XXV, xviii). [From the Greek for pork and beans.]

nommeés par leurs vertus

Le livre d’Estienne fournit toutes ces informations, lichen excepté. Rabelais se souvient sans doubt, sur ce dernier point, d’un auteur qu’il a partiellement édité: Manardi, Epistolae medicinales, XVIII, 3. — Hyoscyame («fève de pourceau») et hanebanes sont même chose, mais les deux noms n’ont pas le même sens. Le second fera encore écrire à Nicot: «Hanebane […] est poison aux poules, de sorte que si le grain qui leur est donné en est frotté, elles meurent. L’Anglois dit Henbene, qui signifie Poison aux Gelines, ou Mort à Gelines.»

hyoscyamus

hyoscyamus [adaptation of Greek ueroskuamoj (formed on ueoj, gen. of uj pig + kuamoj bean), in Palladius (C. 1420 Palladius on husbondrie) written iusquiamus, whence jusquiam.]

A genus of plants belonging to the N.O. Solanaceæ; the British species is Hyoscyamus niger, henbane. The narcotic extract or tincture of henbane.

Notes

Fenugrecum

Fenugrecum (text)

Fenabregue

Après avoir longtems cherché ce que signifioit ce mot, j’ai fû enfin qu’à Sommiéres en Languedoc on appeloit fenabregue l’arbre que nous appelons alisier.

fenabregue

Translated by Urquhart as “ash.” Ozell notes: “M. du Chat, after he had sought a long while what this Word meant, at length found that at Sommieres in Languedoc, they called Fenabregue the Tree that’s called in other Parts of France Alsiter, the Lote-tree; of which, says Cotgrave, there is the grey, the red, and other sorts, all strangers in England.”

Fenabregue

Après avoir longtemps cherché ce que signifioit ce mot, j’ai sû enfin qu’à Sommières en Languedoc on appelloit fenabregue l’arbre que nous appellons alisier. (L.) — Le Duchat ajoute dans Ménage à ce mot: « On appelle ferabregue l’alisier, dans le patois de Montpellier et des environs. Voyez Jo. Bruter, De re cibaria, liv. XI, ch. xxxvii. » Ceci est une allusion bien singulière à tous les arbres dont on fait ordainairement les gibets; ce que désigne sur-tout le nom de l’arbre fenabergue, ou fin-abrège, c’est-à-dire qui abrège la fin ou la vie, et la virtu qu’a l’ormeau d’avoir été grand chirurgien en son temps, puisque la potence guérit de tous les maux.

Fenabregue

Fenabregue is an unknown tree. Duchat claims to have found it as the name of an ash in Languedoc. In Athenaeus all the other trees correspond to those put down here, and Fenabregue represents [greek] Mulberry. [Greek], however, is the correction of Meineke, the old reading being opea, which Rabelais probably took to be mountain-ash.

Fenabregue

Corruption du mot provençal Falabreguié. C’est le Lotus arbor des anciens botanistes et notre Celtis australis, L., ou micocoulier. (Paul Delaunay)

fabregue

Fabregue Plante dont les feuilles sont semblables à celles du serpolet. Elle croît dans les lieux pierreux. L’ infusion de fabrègue est souveraine contre la morsure des animaux venimeux, contre la difficulté d’ uriner, et contre plusieurs autres maladies.

fenugreek

fenugreek. Forms: fenogrecum, fene-, feyngrek, feiny greke), fene-, feny-greke, fen(e)-, fenigreek(e, fenecryck, foenegreeke), feni-, feny-, fenugrec(k, fenegry), fenu-Greek, oenugreek, fenugreek. [OE. fenogræcum, Latin fænugræcum for fænum Græcum Greek hay, the name given by the Romans (see quot. 1861). The Middle English and later forms are adaptation of French fenugrec]

A leguminous plant (Trigonella Foenum Græcum) cultivated for its seeds, which are used by farriers.

Sorbus torminalis

Sorbus torminalis, with common names wild service tree, chequers, and checker tree, is a species of Sorbus native to Europe from England and Wales east to Denmark and Poland, south to northwest Africa, and southeast to southwest Asia from Asia Minor to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains.

Notes

Balanus (text)

Balanus

Oxylus

In his discussion of the names of figs (sukai) in Book II of Inquiry into Plants, Tryphon (fr. 119 Velsen) says that Androtion in his On Agriculture (FGrH 324 F *76) records that when Syceas, who was one of the Titans, was being pursued by Zeus, his mother Earth protected him and made the plant grow up to entertain her child, who also gave his name to the city of Sycea in Cilicia. But the epic poet Pherenicus (SH 672), who was a Heracleot by birth, claims that the name came from Sycē (“Fig Tree”) the daughter of Oxylus. For Oxylus son of Oreius had sex with his sister Hamadryas and begot, among others, daughters named Nut-tree, Oak, Cornel-cherry, Mulberry, Poplar, Elm, Grapevine, and Fig-tree. They were referred to as the Hamadryad [Literally “Simultaneous with a Tree,” the point of the name being that the nymph lived as long as the tree with which she was associated] nymphs, and many trees got their names from them. Hipponax (fr. 52 Degani) as well, therefore, says:
a dark fig tree, sister of a grapevine.

Oxylus

Voiez Athénée, l. 3 chap. 3.

Oxylus

Oxylus, &c.] See Athenaeus l. iii, c. iii

Oxylus

Voiez Athénée, l. 3 chap. 3. (L.)

Oxylus

Voy. Athénée, l. III, c. III.

Oxylus

Légend tirée d’Athénée (Banquet, 3, 78). Oxylus, fils d’Orius, eut de sa sœur Hamadryas huit filles qui furent les Hamadryades, et présidèrent à divers arbres. Les noms d’arbres sont dès lors féminins dans l’original. Rabelais, sans y prendre garde, en a tradiuit la majeure partie par des noms masculins, et parfois arbitraires: si l’on retrouve Ampelos dans la vigne, Sikê dans le figuier, Carya dans le noyer, Ptelea dans l’ulmeau ou orme (Hœfer y veut voir un peuplier), par contre Balanos n’est peut-être pas le chêne comme le prétent Rabelais, mais quelque arbre glandifère indéterminé (on a pensé au Myrobalan); et il n’est pas davantage prouvé qu’Orea soit la nymphe du hêtre, comme le veulent les Anciens, ou celle du Fenabrégue que Rabelais endend lui dédier. (Cf. A. Garrigues, A propos d’un passage de la botanique de Rabelais, L’association médicale, october, 1923, p. 219-222). (Paul Delaunay)

Hamadryas

C’est la légende des Hamadryades (nymphes des arbres) , raconté par Athénée, Banquet, III, 78; cf. Gyraldi, Syntagma de deis gentium, Bâle, 1555, 170. L’ulmeau (l’orme) « feut grand Chirurgien en son temps », sans doute parce que les Anciens corrigeaient les enfants et les esclaves avec des verges d’orme (d’ou l’adjectif ulmi-tribus).

Oxylus et les hamadryas

D’après Athénée, Banquet des Sophistes, III, 78. Oxylos, fils d’Oréios, épousa sa propre sœur et eut avec elle des nymphes d’arbres ou hamadryades: Carya, Balanos, Crania, Moréa, Aegiros, Ptéléa, Ampélos, Sycé. La fénabrègue, ou fabréguier, est le micocoulier.

hamadryad

hamadryad. Also in Lat. form hamadryades [adaptation of Latin Hamadryas, adopted from Greek Amadruaj, chiefly in pleural, wood-nymphs, formed on ama together with + druj tree]

Greek and Latin Mythology. A wood-nymph fabled to live and die with the tree which she inhabited.

Oxylos

OXYLOS (Oxylus) was the rustic demi-god (daimon) of mountain forests (or perhaps more specifically the mountain beech). He was a son of Oreios “the Mountain” and husband of Hamadryas “She-with-Tree” and the father of eight Hamadryad-nymph daughters who each presided over a species of tree. His son Andraimon (Andraemon) was an early king of the mountain-dwelling Dryopes tribe. Oxylos was primarily associated with the mountain-forests of central Greece–the Pindus mountain range, Mount Oita (Oeta) and Mount Othrys.

Oxylos’ name is perhaps derived from the term axylos hylê, “virgin mountain-forest”, or it could be connected with oxya, “beech-tree” (Fagus sylvatica). If the latter is the case, then his wife Hamadryas is probably drys, “oak”, rather than drys, “tree” in general.

Oxylos is probably related to Hekateros (Hecaterus) and Seilenos (Silenus)–two rustic demi-gods who were also described as fathers of the Dryades and Satyroi (Satyrs).

PARENTS: OREIOS (Athenaeus 78b)

OFFSPRING: [1.1] THE HAMADRYADES (KARYA, BALANOS, KRANEIA, MOREA, AIGEIROS, PTELEA, AMPELOS, SYKE) (by Hamadryas) (Phereclus Frag, Athenaeus 78b)

[1.2] THE HAMADRYADES, ANDRAIMON (Antoninus Liberalis 32)

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 78b (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to C3rd A.D.) :

“The Epic poet Pherenikos (Pherenicus), a Herakleto by birth, declares that the fig (Sykon) was named from Syke (Fig-Tree), the daughter of Oxylos (Beech-Tree); for Oxylos, son of Oreios (Mountain), married his sister Hamadryas (Plum Tree) and begot among others, Karya (Walnut-Tree), Balanos (Oak-Nut Tree), Kraneia (Cornel-Tree), Morea (Mulberry-Bush), Aigeiros (Poplar-Tree), Ptelea (Elm-Tree), Ampelos (Grape-Vine), and Syke (Fig-Tree); and these are called Nymphai Hamadryades (Hamadryad Nymphs), and from them many trees derive their names.”

Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 32 (trans. Celoria) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

“Dryops (Oak-Face) was the son of the River Sperkheios (Spercheus) and of Polydore (Many-Gifts), one of the daughters of Danaos (Danaus). He was king in Oita (Oeta) and he had an only daughter, Dryope (Oak-Face). She herself herded the flocks of her father. Now, the Nymphai Hamadryades (Hamadryad Nymphs) [probably the daughters of Oxylos] were very much attached to her and made her their companion, teaching her to sing to the gods and to dance. Apollon, seeing her dancing, felt an urge to couple with her. He first changed himself into a tortoise. Dryope, with the other Nymphai, was amused by it and they made a toy of the tortoise. She placed it in her bosom. He changed from a tortoise to a serpent.

The frightened Nymphai abandoned Dryope. Apollon coupled with her and she ran full of fear to her father’s house, saying nother to her parents. When Andraimon (Andraemon), son of Oxylos (Oxylus), later married her, she gave birth to Amphissos, the son of Apollon .

He became the king of the places thereabouts. In Dryopis he established a sanctuary of Apollon. One day, as Dryope was approaching the temple, the Nymphai Hamadryades gathered her up affectionately and hid her in the woods. In her place they caused a poplar to appear out of the ground.”

Notes

Ficus (text)

Ficus carica

Ficus carica L.
edible fig

le flair du Figuier, aux Taureaux indignez

caprificus tauros quamlibet feroces collo eorum circumdata in tantum mirabili natura conpescit ut inmobiles praestet.

The wild fig, if a branch be put round the neck of a bull, however fierce, by its miraculous nature so subdues the animal as to make him incapable of movement.

The Smell of the Fig-tree to mad Bulls

Table-Talk II, Question 7

1. Once, when small fish of all sorts were served to us, Chaeremonianus of Tralles pointed out one with a sharp, elongated head and said that the echeneïs resembled it; he had seen (he said) the echeneis while sailing off Sicily and had been amazed at its power, for during the course of the voyage it had been responsible for no little loss of speed and delay until the look-out had caught it sticking to the outer face of the vessel’s hull. At this, some laughed at Chaeremonianus for accepting a mythical and unbelievable fabrication; others chatted about the “antipathies” [1]; and one could hear much else and also the following about things antipathetic: the sight of a ram stops a mad elephant; if you point an oak twig at a viper and touch it, the viper is brought to a standstill; a wild bull is quieted and made gentle if bound to a fig-tree [2]; amber moves and attracts all light things, except basil and whatever is wet with oil; the loadstone does not attract iron rubbed with garlic. Indeed these things are subject to a clear test, but it is hard (they said) to determine the cause, if not altogether impossible.

1. Bolus of Mendes, the former of Democritus exposed by Callimachus, wrote a Sympathies and Antipathies (in nature); see Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker, Demokritos 300. 1–5; cf. infra, iv. 2, 664 c.

2. Cf. infra, 696 f, where the theory is different.

the fiercest of bulls, if tied to a fig tree, becomes quiet

Table-Talk IV., Question 10

Two things indicate that a strong, intense exhalation [1] is given off by the fig tree; first, our sense of smell, and second, the alleged fact that the fiercest of bulls, if tied to a fig tree, becomes quiet, lets people touch him, and completely abandons his rage, as if the spirit were withering within him. This effect is mainly due to the bitterness of the plant, for the fig is the richest in sap of all plants, not only the fruit but the wood and the leaf too being full of it.

1. G. Soury connects this with Stoic theory (pneuma is the word used) in Revue Ét. Gr. lxi (1949), pp. 322 f. Cf. supra, 642 c.

The Smell of the Fig-tree to mad Bulls

Pliny xxiii. 7 § 64.

le flair du Figuier, aux Taureaux indignez

D’après Pline, XXIII, 64, «Caprificus tauros quamlibet feroces, collo eorum circumdata, in tantum mirabili natura compescit ut immobiles præstet.» Cette légende se retrouve dans Plutarque (Quœst. Sympos., 7) et Isidore de Séville (Orig., XVII, 7). Il s’agit ici du figuier sauvage, Ficus carica. L. (Paul Delaunay)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

le flair du Figuier, aux Taureaux indignez

Un collier de figuier immobilise les taureaux (Pline, XXIII, lxiv).

fig

fig. Forms: fige, fyg(g(e, , figg(e [adopted from Old French fige, figue, adaptation of Provençal figa, figua: -popular Latin *fica fig, formed on Latin ficus fig-tree, fig.]

The fruit of the fig-tree or Ficus, esp. the fruit of the Ficus carica.

fig-tree. Any tree of the genus Ficus, especially Ficus carica.

A poisoned fig used as a secret way of destroying an obnoxious person. Often fig of Spain, Spanish, Italian fig. Obsolete

Notes

Granatum

Granatum (text)

Balustia

Balustia (text)

Punica granatum L.

Granatenäpffelbaum
Malus Punica

Punica granatum L.

Punica granatum L. [as Apffel aus Granaten]
pomegranate

punica granatum

sed circa Carthaginem Punicum malum cognomine sibi vindicat: aliqui granatum appellant; divisit et in genera apyrenum vocando cui lignosus nucleus abesset: candidior ei natura et blandiores acini minusque amaris distincti membranis; alias structura eorum quaedam ut in favis, communis nucleos habentium. horum quinque species: dulcia, acria, mixta, acida, vinosa; Samia et Aegyptia distinguntur erythrocomis et leucocomis. corticis maior usus ex acerbis ad perficienda coria. flos balaustium vocatur, et medicis idoneus et tinguendis vestibus, quarum color inde nomen accepit.

But the country in the neighbourhood of Carthage claims by the name of Punic apple what some call the pomegranate; this it has also split up into classes, by giving the name of apyrenum [aἈπύρηνον ‘without kernel.’] to the variety that lacks a woody kernel: the consistency of this is whiter than that of the others, and its pips have a more agreeable taste and the membranes enclosing them are not so bitter; but in other respects these apples have a special structure resembling the cells in a honeycomb, which is common to all that have a kernel. Of these there are five kinds, the sweet, the sour, the mixed, the acid and the vinous; those of Samos and of Egypt are divided into the red-leaved and the white-leaved varieties. The skin of the unripe fruit is specially used for dressing leather. The flower is called balaustium, and is serviceable for doctors and also for dyeing cloth; it has given its name to a special colour [puniceus, ‘purple’].

Punick Apples

Pomegranates.

Punic Apples

Pliny xiii. 19, § 34.

grenades

Grenadier, Punica granatum L. (Myrtacée). Selon Pline les meilleures grenades venaient de Carthage (Malum punicum) : « circa Carthaginem punicum malum cognomine sibi vindicat », XIII, 34. Mais de Candolle pense que cet arbre est originaire de Perse, et ne fut qu’importé à Carthage par les Phéniciens. (Paul Delaunay)

grenade

grenade. Forms: granade; grenade. [adopted from French grenade fem., adopted from Spanish granada pomegranate (see garnet).]

A pomegranate. Obsolete

Punic

Punic. Also -yk, -ik, -ike, -icke, -ique, -icque, -ick. [adaptation of Latin Puicus, earlier Poenicus, formed on Poenus a Carthaginian; formed on Greek foinic Phoenician, Carthaginian; also purple. Cf. French punique (15th century in Littré).]

Belonging to Carthage; Carthaginian. Punic Wars, the three wars between the Romans and Carthaginians waged between 264 and 146 bc.

Punic apple (Latin Punicum malum), the pomegranate; so Punic-tree. Obsolete.

Notes

Euforbium

Euforbium (text)

Euphorbia

tithymalus cyparissias
Euphorbia cyparissias L.
Cypres spurge

Euphorbia

Spurge. Pliny xxv. 7, § 38.

euphorbia

« Invenit et partum nostrorum ætate rex Juba, quam appellavit euphorbiam, medici sui nomine ». Pline, XXV, 38. C’est Euphorbia (Diacanthium) officinarum, L. (Paul Delaunay)

euphorbia

Invenit et patrum nostrorum aetate rex Iuba quam appellavit euphorbeam medici sui nomine. frater is fuit Musae a quo divum Augustum conservatum indicavimus. iidem fratres instituere a balineis frigida multa corpora adstringere. antea non erat mos nisi calida tantum lavari, sicut apud Homerum etiam invenimus. sed Iubae volumen quoque extat de ea herba et clarum praeconium. invenit eam in monte Atlante, specie thyrsi, foliis acanthinis. vis tanta est ut e longinquo sucus excipiatur incisa conto; subitur excipulis ventriculo haedino. umor lactis videtur defluens siccatus cum coiit, turis effigiem habet. qui colligunt clarius vident. contra serpentes medetur, quacumque parte percussa vertice inciso et medicamento addito ibi. Gaetuli qui legunt taedio lacte adulterant, sed discernitur igni, id enim quod sincerum non est fastidiendum odorem habet. multum infra hunc sucum est qui in Gallia fit ex herba chamelaea granum cocci ferente. fractus hammoniaco similis est, etiam levi gustu os accensum diu detinens et magis ex intervallo, donec fauces quoque siccet.

In the age too of our fathers King Juba [Juba is probably the son of the Juba who committed suicide after Thapsus. He was brought to Rome by Caesar and carefully educated] discovered a plant to which he gave the name euphorbea, calling it after his own physician Euphorbus. This man was the brother of the Musa we have mentioned as the saviour of the life of the late Emperor Augustus. It was these brothers who first adopted the plan of bracing the body by copious douches of cold water after the bath. Before this the custom was to bathe in hot water only, as we find that it is also in Homer. But the treatise also of Juba on this plant is still extant, and it makes a splendid testimonial. He discovered it on Mount Atlas: it has the appearance of a thyrsus and the leaves of the acanthus. Its potency is so great that the juice, obtained by incision with a pole, is gathered from a distance; it is caught in receivers made of kids’ stomachs placed underneath. Fluid and like milk as it drops down, when it has dried and congealed it has all the features of frankincense. The collectors find their vision improved. It is employed as treatment for snake-bite. In whatever part of the body the bite may be, an incision is made in the top of the skull and the medicament inserted there. The Gaetulians who gather the juice adulterate it out of weary disgust by adding milk, but fire is a test of genuineness, for that which is adulterated emits a nauseating smell. Far inferior to the Atlas juice is that which in Gaul comes from the ground-olive, which bears a red berry like kermes. Broken it resembles hammoniacum, and even a slight taste leaves for a long time a burning sensation in the mouth; after a while this increases until it dries up even the throat.

euphorbia

euphorbia (which furnish castor oil and croton oil) named for Euphorbus, Greek physician to King Juba of Numidia, in the days of the Cæsars.

Juba

Roi de Numidie (Pline, xxv, xxxviii).

Euphorbus the physician

Euphorbus was the Greek physician of Juba II (50 BC – AD 23), king of Numidia. He wrote that a succulent plant, similar to the Euphorbia, was a powerful laxative. In 12 BC, Juba named this plant after his physician Euphorbus in response to Augustus dedicating a statue to Antonius Musa, Augustus’s own personal physician and Euphorbus’ brother.

euphorbium

Euphorbium. Also euf-, eufforbium. [adopted from Latin euphorbeum = euphorbea.]

=Euphorbia. Obsolete

A gum resin obtained from certain succulent species of Euphorbia. It is an extremely acrid substance, formerly used as an emetic and purgative. The powder causes violent sneezing.

Euphorbia

Euphorbia. Also euforbia. [adopted from Latin euphorbea, formed on Euphorbus, the name of a physician to Juba king of Mauritania.]

The Latin and botanical name of the Spurge genus (N.O. Euphorbiaceæ), comprising many species, which vary from a herbaceous plant in temperate regions, to a tree-like growth in warm climates. They are marked by two almost constant characteristics, the secretion of a viscid milky juice, and the peculiar inflorescence of having a number of stamens round a stalked and three-celled ovary.

juba

juba [Latin juba mane, foliage of trees]

Notes

Ebanus

Ebanus (text)

Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

116. divisae arboribus patriae. sola India nigrum
fert hebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.
quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
balsamaque et bacas semper frondentis acanthi?
quid nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana,
velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres?

trees have their allotted climes. India alone bears black ebony; to the Sabaeans alone belongs the frankincense bough. Why should I tell you of the balsams that drip from the fragrant wood, or of the pods of the ever blooming acanthus? Why tell of the Ethiopian groves, all white with downy wool [molli lana, i.e. cotton], or how the Seres comb from leaves their fine fleeces [In Virgil’s time the Romans, knowing nothing of the silkworm, supposed that the silk they imported from the East grew on the leaves of trees] ?

ebony

Ezekiel 27 King James Version (KJV)
27 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
2 Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
3 And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.
4 Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
5 They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
6 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
7 Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
8 The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
9 The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
10 They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
11 The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
14 They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
16 Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
18 Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
19 Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
20 Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
23 Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
24 These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
25 The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.
27 Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
28 The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
29 And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;
30 And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31 And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
32 And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
33 When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
34 In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall.
35 All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
36 The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.

Ebony

Lanigeras Serum in mentione gentis eius narravimus, item Indiae arborum magnitudinem. unam e peculiaribus Indiae Vergilius celebravit hebenum, nusquam alibi nasci professus. Herodotus eam Aethiopiae intellegi maluit, in tributi vicem regibus Persidis e materia eius centenas phalangas tertio quoque anno pensitasse Aethiopas cum auro et ebore prodendo. non omittendum id quoque, vicenos dentes elephantorum grandes, quoniam ita significavit, Aethiopas ea de causa pendere solitos. tanta ebori auctoritas erat urbis nostrae cccx anno: tunc enim auctor ille historiam eam condidit Thuriis in Italia, quo magis mirum est quod eidem credimus, qui Padum amnem vidisset neminem ad id tempus Asiae Graeciaeque visum. cognita Aethiopiae forma, ut diximus, nuper allata Neroni principi raram arborem Meroen usque a Syene fine imperii per DCCCCLXXXXVI p. nullamque nisi palmarum generis esse docuit. ideo fortassis in tributi auctoritate tertia res fuerit hebenus.
IX. Romae eam Magnus Pompeius triumpho Mithridatico ostendit. accendi Fabianus negat, uri tamen odore iucundo. duo genera eius: rarum id quod melius, arboreum, tereti et enodi materie nigri splendoris ac vel sine arte protinus iucundi, alterum fruticosum cytisi modo et tota India dispersum.

We have already described the wool-bearing trees of the Chinese in making mention of that race, and we have spoken of the large size of the trees in India. One of those peculiar to India, the ebony, is spoken of in glowing terms by Virgil, [Georgics II. 116 f.] who states that it does not grow in any other country. Herodotus, [Herodotus says 200 logs, III. 97. The term ‘ebony’ was and still is applied to many different hard woods imported into European countries] however, prefers it to be ascribed to Ethiopia, stating that the Ethiopians used to pay as tribute to the Kings of Persia every three years a hundred logs of ebony, together with gold and ivory. Nor also should we omit the fact, since that author indicates it, that the Ethiopians used to pay twenty large elephant tusks on the same account. So high was the esteem in which ivory was held in the 310th year [446 BC; but Thurii, where Herodotus settled to escape from political disorders at Halicarnassus, his native city, was not colonized by Greek settlers till 443 b.c. Hdt. III. 115] of our city, the date at which that author composed his history at Thurii in Italy; which makes all the more surprising the statement which we accept on his authority, that nobody of Asia or Greece had hitherto been seen who had ever seen the river Po. The exploration of the geography of Ethiopia, which as we have said had lately been reported to the Emperor Nero, showed that over a space of 1,996 miles from Syene on the frontier of the empire to Meroe trees are rare, and there are none except of the palm species. That is possibly the reason why ebony was the third most important item in the tribute paid.
IX. Ebony was exhibited at Rome by Pompey the Great on the occasion of his triumph over Mithridates. According to Fabius ebony does not give out a flame, yet burns with an agreeable scent. It is of two kinds: the better one, which grows as a tree, is rare—it is of a smooth substance and free from knots, and of a shiny black colour that is pleasing to the eye even in the natural state without the aid of art; whereas the other grows as a shrub like the cytisus, and is spread over the whole of India.

ebene

Bois fourni par diverses Ébénacées, surtour Diospyros ebenum, L., plaqueminier. (Paul Delaunay)

ebony

ebony. Forms: hebenyf, hebeny, ebonie, ebany, ebeny, ibony, ebony. [Of somewhat obscure formation: ME. hebenyf is app. adaptation of Latin hebeninus (? misread as hebeniuus), adaptation of Greek ebeninoj made of ebony, formed on hebenus ebony.]

A hard black wood, obtained from various species of the N.O. Ebenaceæ, especially that mentioned under ebon, and Diospyros Melanoxylon, a native of Coromandel.