Natural History Volume 3

by Pliny the Elder

26 chapters11h 56mEnglish1855

About this book

Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77-79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. The work became a model for all later encyclopedias in terms of the breadth of subject matter examined, the need to reference original authors, and a comprehensive index list of the contents. The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from nature. The work divides neatly into the organic world of plants and animals, and the realm of inorganic matter, although there are frequent digressions in each section. He is especially interested in not just describing the occurrence of plants, animals and insects, but also their exploitation (or abuse) by man, especially Romans. The description of metals and minerals is particularly detailed, and valuable for the history of science as being the most extensive compilation still available from the ancient world. (Summary from Wikipedia)This third volume includes books eleven to fifteen, covering the following subjects:Book 11 - The various kinds of insectsBook 12 - The natural history of treesBook 13 - The natural history of exotic trees and an account of unguentsBook 14 - The natural history of the fruit treesBook 15 - The natural history of the fruit trees

Chapters (26)

101 - Book 11, Chapters 1-9 : The extreme smallness of insects; whether insects respire and whether they have blood; the bodies of insects; bees; the order displayed in the work of bees(..); persons who have made bees their study

917

202 - Book 11, Chapter 10 - 17: The mode in which bees work; drones; the qualities of honey; (...); the reproduction of bees; the mode of government by the bees</is>

1346

303 - Book 11, Chapters 18 - 29: Happy omens sometimes afforded by a swarm of bees; the various kinds of bees; the diseases of bees; (...) wasps and hornets; the silk-worm; (...); spiders; the generation of spiders

1208

404 - Book 11, Chapters 30 - 38: Scorpions; the grasshopper; the wings of insects; the beetle; the glow-worm; other kinds of beetles; locusts; ants; the chrysalis

1266

505 - Book 11, Chapters 39 - 57: Insects that are parasites of man; an animal which has no passage for the evacuations; moths, cantharides, gnats; (...); the various kinds of horns; animals in which they are moveable; the heads of animals; those which have none; the hair; the brain; the ears; the face; the eyes; the diversity of the color of the eyes; the theory of sight; the nature of the pupil; the hair of the eyelids; animals which have no eyelids

2012

606 - Book 11, Chapters 58 - 73: The cheeks; the nostrils; the mouth; the lips; the chin; the teeth (...); the tongue; the tonsils; the neck; the throat; the dorsal spine; the throat; the stomach; the heart; the blood; the vital spirit (...); the lungs; the liver

1409

707 - Book 11, Chapters 74 - 92 :The gall; the properties of the gall; the diaphragm; the nature of laughter; the belly; animals which have no belly; the small guts (...); the spleen; the kidneys; the greast; the ribs; the bladder; the womb; animals which do not grow fat; the marrow; bones and fishbones; the cartilage; the nerves; the arteries; the veins (...);whether the blood is the principle of life

1735

808 - Book 11, Chapters 93 - 108: The hide of animals; the hair and the covering of the skin; te paps; birds that have paps; the milk; cheese; various kinds of cheese; the fingers; the arms; the nails; the knees and the hams; varicose veins; the gait, the feet, the legs; hoofs; the feet of biords; the feet of animals

1579

909 - Book 11, Chapters 109 - 119:The sexual parts; hermaphrodites; the testes; the tails of animals; the different voices of animals; superfluous limbs; respiration and nutriment; reasons for indigestion; from what causes corpulence arises and how it may be reduced; what things, by merely tasting of them, allay hunger and thirst; authors quoted

1734

1010 - Book 12, Chapters 1 - 13:The honourable place occupied by trees in the system of nature; the early history of trees; exotic trees; the plane-tree; (...) the trees of India; (...) Indian trees, the names of which are unknown; Indian trees which bear flax

1667

1111 - Book 12, Chapters 14 - 28: The pepper-tree; the various kinds of pepper; Caryophyllon, lycion and the Chironian pyxacanthus; macir; sugar; (...) trees of Persis; trees of the islands of the Persian sea; the cotton tree; (...) amomum, amomis

1781

1212 - Book 12, Chapters 29 - 42: Cardamomum; the country of frankincense; the trees that bear frankincense; various kinds of frankincense; myrrh; the trees that produce myrrh; the nature and various kinds of myrrh; mastich; ladanum and stobolon; enhaemon; (...) why Arabia was called happy; cinnamomum, xylocinnamum

2881

1313 - Book 12, Chapters 43 - 63: Cassia; cancamum and tarum; serichatum and gabalium; myrobalanum; phoenicobalanus; the sweet-scented calamus; the sweet-scented rush; hammoniacum; sphagnos; cypros; asphalatos; maron; balsamum, opobalsamum and xylobalsamum; storax; galbanum; panax; spondylium; malobathrum; omphacion; bryon; elate or sphate; cinnamon; authors quoted

2433

1414 - Book 13, Chapters 1 - 5:Unguents: at what period they were first introduced; the various kinds of unguents; diaspa, magma, the modes of testing unguents; the excess to which luxury has run in unguents; when unguents were first used by the Romans

1184

1515 - Book 13, Chapters 6 - 9: The palm tree; the nature of the palm tree; how the palm tree is planted; the different varieties of palm trees and their characteristics

1062

1616 - Book 13, Chapters 10 - 27: The trees of Syria: the pistacia, the cottana, the damascena and the myma; the cedar; the terebinth; the sumach tree; the trees of Egypt; the fig-tree of Alexandria; the fig tree of Cyprus; the carob tree; the Persian tree; the cucus; the Egyptian thorn; nine kinds of gum; the sarcocolla; the papyrus; the use of paper; when it was first invented; the mode of making paper; the nine different kinds of paper; the mode of testing the goodness of paper; the peculiar defects in paper; the paste used in the preparation of paper; the books of Numa

1815

1717 - Book 13, Chapters 28 - 34: The trees of Aethiopia; the trees of Mount Atlas; the citrus and the tables made of the wood there of; the points that are desirable or otherwise in these tables; the citron-tree; the lotus; the trees of Cyrenaica; the paliurus; nine varieties of the Punic apple; balaustium

985

1818 - Book 13, Chapters 35 - 52: The trees of Asia and Greece; the tragion; tragacanthe; the tragos or scorpio; the euonymos; the tree called eon; (...) the royal thorn; the trees and shrubs of the Mediterranean; the sea bryon; plants of the red sea; plants of the Indian sea; the plants of the Troglodytic sea; authors quoted

1421

1919 - Book 14, Chapters 1 - 4: The nature of the vine; its mode of fructification; the nature of the grape and the cultivation of the vine; ninety-one varieties of the vine

2111

2020 - Book 14, Chapters 5 - 9: Remarkable facts connected with the culture of the vine; the most ancient wines; the nature of wines; fifty kinds of generous wines; thirty-eight varieties of foreign wines

1512

2121 - Book 14, Chapters 10 - 23: Seven kinds of salted wines; eighteen varieties of sweet wines; at what period generous wines were first commonly made in Italy; the inspection of wine ordered by king Romulus; wines drunk by the ancient Romans; some remarkable facts connected with wine-lofts; the Opimian wine; at what period four kinds of wine were first served at table; the uses of the wild vine; sixty-six varieties of artificial wine; hydromeli or melicraton; twelve kinds of wines with miraculous properties; what wines it is not lawful to use in the sacred rites

1762

2222 - Book 14, Chapters 24 - 29: How must is usually prepared; pitch and resin; vinegar; wine vessels; wine cellars; drunkenness; liquors with the strength of wine made from water and corn; authors quoted

1556

2323 - Book 15, Chapters 1 - 8: The olive; the nature of the olive and of the new olive oil; olive oil: the countries in which it is produced and its various qualities; fifteen varieties of olives; the nature of olive oil; the culture of the olive: its mode of preservation; the method of making olive oil; forty-eight varieties of artificial oils; amurca

1645

2424 - Book 15, Chapters 9 - 18: The various kinds of fruit-trees and their natures; four varieties of pine nuts; the quince; six varieties of the peach; twelve kinds of plums; the peach; thirty different kinds of pomes; the fruits that have been most recently introduced; forty-one varieties of the pear; the mode of keeping various fruits and grapes

1749

2525 - Book 15, Chapters 19 - 26: Twenty-nine varieties of the fig; historical anecdotes connected with the fig; caprification; three varieties of the medlar; four varieties of the sorb; nine varieties of the nut; eighteen varieties of the chestnut; the carob

1975

2626 - Book 15, Chapters 27 - 40: The fleshy fruits; the mulberry; the fruit of the arbutus; the relative natures of berry fruits; nine varieties of the cherry; the cornel, the lentisk; thirteen different flavours of juices; the various natures of fruit; the myrtle; eleven varieties of the myrtle; the myrtle used at home in ovations; the laurel; thirteen varieties of it;authors quoted

2251

Natural History Volume 3

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