Note 815 — BOOK XIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS.
John Bostock translation
Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greek πατέω, “to tread under foot,” and Hardouin is of that opinion. Fée, however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac “patach,” “to expand,” or “open,” or else from the Hebrew “pathah,” the name of the first vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form.