The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 11. (8.)—CACHRYS.
The robur bears cachrys,[2264] 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 pine-nut, 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[2265] 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.[2266] The robur produces mistletoe[2267] also, and, if we may believe Hesiod,[2268] honey as well: indeed, it is a well-known fact, that a honey-like[2269] dew falling from heaven, as we have already mentioned,[2270] 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[2271] ash.
The holm oak, however, by its scarlet berry[2272] alone challenges competition with all these manifold productions. This grain appears at first sight to be a roughness on the surface of the tree, as it were, a small kind of the aquifolia[2273] variety of holm oak, known as the cusculium.[2274] To the poor in Spain it furnishes[2275] the means of paying one half of their tribute. We have already, when speaking[2276] of the purple of the murex, mentioned the best methods adopted for using it. It is produced also in Galatia, Africa, Pisidia, and Cilicia: the most inferior kind is that of Sardinia.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.