Note 2417 — BOOK XVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES.
John Bostock translation
The Ligustrum vulgare of Linnæus. It has black fruit and a white flower, and is rendered famous by the lines of Virgil—Ecl. ii. 17:
“O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori; Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.”
It is evidently this juxtaposition that has prompted Pliny to mention the vaccinium in the succeeding passage. In B. xii. c. 51, and B. xxiv. c. 45, Pliny seems inclined to confound this shrub with the Cyprus, the Lawsonia inermis of Linnæus, the Henna of the east, a totally different plant.