Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/102

 68 PLiirr's nattteal histoet. [Book II. The olive, the white poplar, and the wiUow turn their leaves round at the summer solstice. The herb pulegium, when dried and hanging up in a house, blossoms on the very day of the winter solstice, and bladders burst in consequence of their being distended Avith air One might wonder at this, did we not observe every day, that the plant named helio- trope always looks towards the setting sun, and is, at all hours, turned towards him, even when he is obscured by clouds". It is certain that the bodies of oysters and of whelks^, and of shell-fish generally, are increased in size and again diminished by the influence of the moon. Certain accurate observers have found out, that the entrails of the field-mouse^ correspond in number to the moon's age, and that the very small animal, the ant, feels the power of this luminary, always resting from her labours at the change of the moon. And so much the more disgraceful is our igno- rance, as every one acknowledges that the diseases in the eyes of certain beasts of burden increase and diminish ac- cording to the age of the moon. But the immensity of the heavens, divided as they are into seventy-two^ constellations, may serve as an excuse. These are the resemblances of cer- tain things, animate and inanimate, into which the learned have divided the heavens. In these they have announced 1600 stars, as being remarkable either for their eflfects or their appearance ; for example, in the tail of the Bull there are seven stars, which are named YergilisB^ ; in his forehead also Axil. GeUins, ix. 7. 2 The heliotropium of the modems has not the property here assigned to it, and it may be doubted whether it exists in any plant, except in a very slight and imperfect degree : the subject will be considered more folly in a subsequent part of the work, xxii. 29, where the author gives a more particular account of the hehotrope. 3 " conchy horum ; " this term appears to have been specifically appHed to the animal from which the Tyrian dye was procured. ■* " soricum fibras;" Alexandre remarks on these words, " fibras je- coris inteUige, id est, lobos infimos ;" Lemaire, i. 318 j but I do not see any ground for this interpretation. 5 It does not appear from what source our author derived this number ; it is considerably greater than that stated by Ptolemy and the older astro- nomers. See the remarks of Hardotiin and of Brotier ; Lemaire. i. 319. the celestial atlas of the modems.
 * Cicero alludes to these opinions in his treatise De Divin. ii. 33 j see
 * The Yergihae or Pleiades are not in the tail of the Bull, according to