Message #20003

[Bianca]

10.   Poseidonius also tells of a tree189 in Gades which has branches that bend to the ground, and oftentimes has leaves (they are sword-like) a cubit in length but only four fingers in breadth. And near New Carthage, he says, there is a tree whose thorns yield a bark190 out of which most beautiful woven stuffs are made. Now I too know a tree191 in Egypt which is like that in Gades so far as the bending p157down of the branches is concerned, but unlike it in respect to the leaves and also in that it has no fruit (he says the tree in Gades has fruit). Thorn-stuffs are woven in Cappadocia also; it is no tree, however, that produces the bark-yielding thorn, but only a sort of herb that keeps close to the ground. In regard to the tree at Gades, this additional circumstance is told: if a branch is broken, milk flows from it, while if a root is cut, a red liquid oozes forth. Concerning Gades, then, I have said enough.