The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 38. (22.)—THE EUONYMOS.
There is no tree productive of a more auspicious presage than one which grows in the Isle of Lesbos, and is known by the name of euonymos.[972] It bears some resemblance to the pomegranate tree, the leaf being in size between the leaf of that and the leaf of the laurel, while in shape and softness it resembles that of the pomegranate tree: it has a white blossom,[973] by which it immediately gives us notice of its dangerous properties.[974] It bears a pod[975] very similar to that of sesame, within which there is a grain of quadrangular shape, of coarse make and poisonous to animals. The leaf, too, has the same noxious effects; sometimes, however, a speedy alvine discharge is found to give relief on such occasions. Alexander Cornelius has called a tree by the name of “eon,”[976] with the wood of which, he says, the ship Argo was built. This tree has on it a mistletoe similar to that of the oak, which is proof against all injury from either fire or water, in the same manner, in fact, as that of no other tree known. This tree, however, appears to have been known to no other author, that I am aware of. Nearly all the Greek writers interpret the name of the tree called “andrachle,” as meaning the same as “purslain:”[978] whereas purslain is, in reality, a herb, and, with the difference of a single letter, is called “andrachne.” The andrachle is a wild tree, which never grows in the plain country, and is similar to the arbute tree in appearance, only that its leaves are smaller, and never fall off. The bark, too, is not rough, but might be taken to be frozen all over, so truly wretched is its appearance.
Similar, too, in leaf to the preceding tree, is the coccygia,[979] though not so large; it has this peculiarity, that it loses its fruit while still in the downy[980] state—they then call it “pappus”—a thing that happens to no other tree. The apharce[981] is another tree that is similar to the andrachle, and like it, bears twice in the year: just as the grape is beginning to flower the first fruit is ripening, while the second fruit ripens at the commencement of winter; of what nature this fruit is we do not find stated.
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