CHAP. 6.—THE PALM-TREE.
In other respects, Egypt is the country that is the best suited
of all for the production of unguents; and next to it, Campania,[1] from its abundance of roses.
(4.) Judæa, too, is greatly renowned for its perfumes, and
even still more so for its palm-trees,[2] the nature of which I
shall take this opportunity of enlarging upon. There are some
found in Europe also. They are not uncommon in Italy, but
are quite barren there.[3] The palms on the coast of Spain bear
fruit, but it is sour.[4] The fruit of those of Africa is sweet,
but quickly becomes vapid and loses its flavour; which, however is not the case with the fruit of those that grow in the
East.[5] From these trees a wine is made, and bread by some
nations,[6] and they afford an aliment for numerous quadrupeds.
It will be with very fair reason then, that we shall confine our
description to the palm-tree of foreign countries. There are
none in Italy that grow spontaneously,[7] nor, in fact, in any
other part of the world, with the exception of the warm countries: indeed, it is only in the very hottest climates that this
tree will bear fruit.
1. Capua, its capital, was the great seat of the unguent and perfume
manufacture in Italy.
2. The Phœnix dactylifera of Linnæus. See also B. xii. c. 62, where he
seems also to allude to this tree.
3. At the present day this is not the fact. The village of La Bordighiera,
situate on an eminence of the Apennines, grows great quantities of dates,
of good quality. At Hieres, Nice, San Remo, and Genoa, they are also
grown.
4. This, too, is not the fact. The dates of Valencia, Seville, and other
provinces of Spain, are sweet, and of excellent quality.
5. Pliny is wrong again in this statement. The date of Barbary, Tunis,
Algiers, and Bildulgerid, the "land of dates," is superior in every respect
to that of the East.
6. The Æthiopians, as we learn from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.
7. Or in a wild state.