339 



BOOK XVI. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES. 



CHAP. 1. — COUNTRIES THAT HAVE NO TEEES. 



We have given the precedence in this account to the fruit- 

 trees and others which, by their delicious juices, first taught 

 man to give a relish to his food and the various aliments 

 requisite for his sustenance, whether it is that they spontane- 

 ously produce these delightful flavours, or whether we have 

 imparted them by the methods of adoption and intermarriage, 1 

 thus bestowing a favour, as it were, upon the very beasts and 

 birds. The next thing, then, would be to speak of the glandi- 

 ferous trees, the trees which proffered the earliest nutriment 

 to the appetite of man, and proved themselves his foster- 

 mothers in his forlorn and savage state — did I not feel myself 

 constrained on this occasion to make some mention of the sur- 

 prise which I have felt on finding by actual experience what 

 is the life of mortals when they inhabit a country that is with- 

 out either tree or shrub. 



(1.) I have already stated 2 that in the East many nations 

 that dwell on the shores of the ocean are placed in this neces- 

 sitous state ; and I myself have personally witnessed the con- 

 dition of the Chauci, 3 both the Greater and the Lesser, situate 

 in the regions of the far North. In those climates a vast tract 

 of land, invaded twice each day and night by the overflowing 

 waves of the ocean, opens a question that is eternally proposed 

 to us by Nature, whether these regions are to be looked upon 

 as belonging to the land, or whether as forming a portion of 

 the sear 



Here a wretched race is found, inhabiting either the more 

 elevated spots of land, or else eminences artificially constructed, 

 and of a height to which they know by experience that the 

 highest tides will never reach. Here they pitch their cabins ; 



1 The methods of grafting and inoculation. 



2 B. xiii. c. 50. They dwelt between the Ems and the Elbe. 



3 See E. iv. c. 29. 



2,2 



