CHAP. 44. (23.)—THE CAPPARIS OR CYNOSBATON, OTHERWISE
OPHIOSTAPHYLE.
In Egypt, too, the capparis[1] is found, a shrub with a wood
of much greater solidity. The seed of it is a well-known
article of food,[2] and is mostly gathered together with the stalk.
It is as well, however, to be on our guard against the foreign
kinds;[3] for that of Arabia has certain deleterious properties,
that from Africa is injurious to the gums, and that from
Marmarica is prejudicial to the womb and causes flatulence
in all the organs. That of Apulia, too, is productive of vomiting, and causes derangement in the stomach and intestines.
Some persons call this shrub "cynosbaton,"[4] others, again,
"ophiostaphyle."[5]
1. The "caper-tree," the Capparis spinosa of Linnæus. Fée suggests
that Pliny may possibly allude, in some of the features which he describes,
to kinds less known; such, for instance, as the Capparis inermis of Forsk-
hal, found in Arabia; the Capparis ovata of Desfontaines, found in Barbary; the Capparis Sinaica, found on Mount Sinai, and remarkable for
the size of its fruit; and the Capparis Ægyptiaca of Lamarck, commonly
found in Egypt.
2. The stalk and seed were salted or pickled. The buds or unexpanded
flowers of this shrub are admired as a pickle or sauce of delicate flavour.
3. Fée remarks that this is not the truth, all the kinds possessing the
same qualities. There may, however, have been some difference in the
mode of salting or pickling them, and possibly productive of noxious
effects.
4. Probably from its thorns, that being the name of the sweet-briar, or
dog-rose.
5. "Serpent grapes."