101 

 BOOK X 



TEE NATURAL HISTORY OF TREES. 



CHAP. 1. THE HONOURABLE PLACE OCCUPIED BY TEEES IN 



THE SYSTEM OF NATURE. 



Such, then, is the history, according to their various species 

 and their peculiar conformations, of all the animals within the 

 compass of our knowledge. It now remains for us to speak of 

 the vegetable productions of the earth, which are equally far 

 from being destitute of a vital spirit, 1 (for, indeed, nothing can 

 live without it), that we may then proceed to describe the mine- 

 rals extracted from it, and so none of the works of Nature may 

 be passed by in silence. Long, indeed, were these last boun- 

 ties of hers concealed beneath the ground, the trees and forests 

 being regarded as the most valuable benefits conferred by Na- 

 ture upon mankind. It was from the forest that man drew 

 his first aliment, by the leaves of the trees was his cave ren- 

 dered more habitable, and by their bark was his clothing sup- 

 plied ; even at this very day, 2 there are nations that live 

 under similar circumstances to these. Still more and more, 

 then, must we be struck with wonder and admiration, that 

 from a primaeval state such as this, we should now be cleaving 

 the mountains for their marbles, visiting the Seres 3 to obtain 

 our clothing, seeking the pearl in the depths of the Eed Sea, 

 and the emerald in the very bowels of the earth. For our 

 adornment with these precious stones it is that we have devised 

 those wounds which we make in our ears; because, forsooth, 

 it was deemed not enough to carry them on our hands, our 

 necks, and our hair, if we did not insert them in our very flesh 

 as well. It will be only proper, then, to follow the order of 

 human inventions, and to speak of the trees before treating of 



1 " Anima." The notion that plants are possessed of a soul or spirit, is 

 derived from the Greek philosophers, who attributed to them intellect also, 

 and sense. 



2 Vitruvius mentions the people of Gaul, Hispania, Lusitania, and 

 Aquitania, as living in his day in dwellings covered with oak shingles, or 

 with straw. 



3 See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xi. c. 26. 



