CHAP. 51.—CYPROS.

The cyprus[1] is a tree of Egypt, with the leaves of the ziziphus,[2] and seeds like coriander,[3] white and odoriferous. These seeds are boiled in olive oil, and then subjected to pressure; the product is known to us as cypros. The price of it is five denarii per pound. The best is that produced on the banks of the Nile, near Canopus, that of second quality coming from Ascalon in Judæa, and the third in estimation for the sweetness of its odour, from the island of Cyprus. Some people will have it that this is the same as the tree which in Italy we call ligustrum.[4]

1. The henné, the Lawsonia inermis of the modern naturalists, a shrub found in Egypt, Syria, and Barbary. From this tree the henna is made with which the women of the East stain the skin of their hands and feet.

2. The jujube-tree. See B. xv. c. 14.

3. See B. xx. c. 82.

4. Or privet.