CHAP. 11. (8.)—CACHRYS.
The robur bears cachrys,[1] too; such being the name given
to a small round ball that is employed in medicine for its
caustic properties. It grows on the fir likewise, the larch,
the pitch-tree, the linden, the nut-tree, and the plane, and
remains on the tree throughout the winter, after the leaves have
fallen. It contains a kernel very similar to that of the pinenut, and increases in size during the winter. In spring the
ball opens throughout, and it finally drops when the leaves
are beginning to grow.
Such is the multiplicity of the products borne by the robur
in addition to its acorns; and not only these, but mushrooms[2]
as well, of better or worse quality, the most recent stimulants
that have been discovered for the appetite; these last are found
growing about its roots. Those of the quercus are the most
highly esteemed, while those of the robur, the cypress, and
the pine are injurious.[3] The robur produces mistletoe[4] also,
and, if we may believe Hesiod,[5] honey as well: indeed, it is
a well-known fact, that a honey[6]-like dew falling from heaven, as
we have already mentioned,[7] deposits itself upon the leaves of
this tree in preference to those of any other. It is also well
known that the wood of this tree, when burnt, produces a
nitrous[8] ash.
1. This word, as employed by Theophrastus, means a catkin, the Julus
amentum of the botanists; but it is doubtful if Pliny attaches this meaning
to the word, as the lime or linden-tree has no catkin, but an inflorescence
of a different character. It is not improbable that, under this name, he
alludes to some excrescence.
2. These were the "boletus" and the suillus;" the last of which seem
only to have been recently introduced at table in the time of Pliny. See
B. xxii. c. 47.
3. He alludes clearly to fungi of radically different qualities, as the nature of the trees beneath which they grow cannot possibly influence them,
any further than by the various proportions of shade they afford. The soil,
however, exercises great influence on the quality of the fungus; growing
upon a hill, it may be innoxious, while in a wet soil it may be productive
of death.
4. See cc. 93, 94, and 95, of this Book.
5. Works and Days, 1. 230.
6. Pliny seems to have here taken in a literal sense, what has been said
figuratively by Virgil, Eel. iv. 1. 26:
"Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella;"
and by Ovid, in relation to the Golden Age, Met. i. 113:
"Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella."
Fée remarks, that we find on the leaf of the lime-tree a thin, sugary deposit, left by insects; and that a species of manna exudes from the Coniferæ,
as also the bark of the beech. This, however, is never the case with the
oak.
7. B. xi. c. 12.
8. By this word, Fée observes, we must not understand the word "nitre,"
in the modern sense, but the sub-carbonate of potash; while the ashes of
trees growing on the shores of the sea produce a sub-carbonate of soda.