History of Rare Plants

slightly acid, and the size of a small cherry. It is likely that they grow at the very tips of the heads, just as dates grow on a palm: however, I did not understand them to be enclosed in a spathe as those are. Furthermore, the young heads of this tree are tender and could be eaten in the manner of the low palms or Chamaeriphes, whose heart is considered a delicacy, were it not for their bitterness.

I find no one among the ancients who mentions this tree, unless perhaps it be that one which Strabo, following Posidonius, reports as growing at Gades, in the third book of his Geography, in these words:

The Cadiz tree of Posidonius.

Posidonius has recorded in his writings concerning a tree existing at Gades, which has branches curved down even to the ground, and leaves very often bearing the appearance of a sword-point, the length of which is a cubit, and the width four fingers. To this tree it is also believed to be innate that, if one branch be broken, a milk flows out; and if the root be cut, a vermilion-colored humor exudes.

But this tree of ours has not curved branches, but erect ones, nor does it have leaves so broad, nor does milk exude when its branches are broken, but only a watery humor. What he adds concerning the root seems to square well enough with ours, from which, when bored near the roots, they say a red tear flows out at fixed times of the year, as we shall say hereafter.

Furthermore, I wish it also to be indicated here in passing, since we have fallen into the mention of Gades, that although I diligently traversed the whole island, I saw no tree such as Posidonius describes: nor indeed any other, besides some willows and one or two carobs, although (as I have learned from inhabitants who are men worthy of trust) there were, within recent memory, most pleasant gardens around the city of Gades, very highly cultivated with every kind of fruit-bearing tree, of which not even a trace now appears, as the sandy ballast, which ships put in there to unload, has filled and parched everything. Among more recent writers, I remember only two who describe this tree, but quite succinctly.

Aloysius Cadamustus mentions it in these words in his book of Navigations, chapter 4:

Dragon's Blood.

In the island of Porto Santo (one of the Canaries) is the Dragon's Blood, the tear of a tree wounded with iron: for at a fixed time of year the trees, being incised, emit in the following year a gum, which when boiled in bronze vessels and strained, becomes the blood which they call Dragon's. This tree produces fruit like a cherry in the month of March, of excellent taste and of a dark blue color.

After him, Thevet describes it in his Singularities of Antarctic France, chapter VIII, in these words translated from the French:

There is in the Canary islands a kind of tree, pouring forth at a certain time of year a gum which they call Dragon's Blood, the tree being perforated near the root with a sufficiently wide and deep opening. Its fruit is yellow, the size of our cherry, and very useful for cooling the body and relieving thirst in fe-
Cinnabar of Dioscorides.

vers or heat. This gum is not unlike the Cinnabar of Dioscorides. Thus far Thevet.

And indeed, that gum which is found among certain more diligent apothecaries, distinguished by the name of Dragon's Blood in tears, is for the most part imported into Europe from Madeira and the Canary islands: and perhaps also from Africa, which in the time of Dioscorides supplied Cinnabar.

Whether this tree is of any moment in medical use, I remember no one writing: however, the acidity of the fruit is proof that it can be profitably administered in fevers (as Thevet judges).

Its tear possesses a power of binding, and its use is not unsuccessful for feminine and dysenteric fluxes, bloody expectorations, for firming loosened teeth, and strengthening the gums. These faculties are very similar to those which Dioscorides attributes to Cinnabar, and which he makes more efficacious than the Haematite stone. For this reason, the more celebrated physicians think, not without cause, that this choice Dragon's blood is the legitimate Cinnabar of Dioscorides, especially since in his time it was also called Dragon's blood by some.

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PERSEA. CHAP. II.

This tree is also very rare, a branch of which we give here in illustration: for in the Kingdom of Valencia alone have I seen a single tree, at the monastery of the Blessed Virgin surnamed of Jesus, at the first milestone from the city of Valencia, brought there from America, as it was reported.

History of the Persea.

This tree, moreover, is like a pear tree, spreading wide with an evergreen canopy, and with branchlets turning pale from green. Its leaves are those of the broad-leaved laurel, green on the upper part, of an ash color on the lower, firm, with some nerves running obliquely through them, commended indeed for their odor and flavor, yet biting the tongue with an astringency. The flower is almost that of the Laurel, abundant, packed in clusters, pale, consisting of six small petals. The fruit at the beginning is like a plum, then in process of time, oblong in the manner of a pear, of a black color and a pleasant flavor: it contains a kernel in the shape of a heart, in taste not unlike a chestnut or a sweet almond. I saw it flowering in the spring, and I understood from the most distinguished master Joan Plaça, Physician and Professor at Valencia, who showed it to me in the place I have just mentioned, that it bears ripe fruit in the Autumn; and he asserted it was called Mamay by the inhabitants: although those Spaniards who have described America for us distinguish another tree, different from this one, by that name. But many years later, I was informed by that most learned man Simon de Tovar, Physician of Seville, who nurtures a similar tree in his most cultivated garden with other exotic plants, that it is called not Mamay, but Aguacate. Whether this tree be the Persea of the Ancients, or not, must be considered.

Persea gratissima, Gaertn.
= Laurus persea. L.
Sp. pl. 1. 370.
De. gen. ver?. 9. 16.