Chap. 16.] THE PINE. 355 



cottages, 98 too, are made of this material. "When a spy has 

 been sent out he often leaves information for his general, 

 written upon fresh bark, by cutting letters in the parts of it 

 that are the most juicy. The bark of the beech is also em- 

 ployed for religious purposes in certain sacred rites." This 

 tree, however, when deprived of its bark, will not survive. 



CHAP. 15. (10.) — SHINGLES. 



The best shingles are those made of the wood of the robur ; 

 the next best being those furnished by the other glandiferous 

 trees and the beech. Those most easily made are cut from, 

 the wood of the resinous trees, but they do not last, 1 

 with the exception of those made of pine. Cornelius 

 Nepos informs us, that Rome was roofed solely with shingles 

 down to the time of the war with Pyrrhus, a period of four 

 hundred and seventy years. It is well known that it was 

 remarkable for the fine forests in its vicinity. Even at the 

 present day, the name of Jupiter Fagutalus points out in 

 what locality there stood a grove of beeches ; 2 the Querque- 

 tulan Gate shows where the quercus once stood, and the Vi- 

 minal Hill is the spot where the " vimen" 3 was sought in 

 ancient times. In many other parts, too, there were groves 

 to be found, and sometimes as many as two. Q. Hortensius, 

 the Dictator, on the secession of the plebeians to the Jani- 

 culum, passed a law in the JEsculetum/ that what the ple- 

 beians had enacted should be binding upon every lioman 

 citizen. 5 



CHAP. 16. THE PINE. 



In those days they regarded as exotics, because they did not 

 exist in the vicinity 6 of the City, the pine and the fir, as well 

 as all the other varieties that produce pitch ; of which we shall 

 now proceed to speak, in order that the method of seasoning 



98 This is still the case in some of the poorer provinces of Spain. 



59 As Fee remarks, Mars is no longer the Divinity in honour of whom 

 characters are traced on the bark of trees. 



1 On the contrary. Fee says, the resinous woods are the most proof of 

 all against the action of the air. 



- Festus says that the Fagutal, a shrine of Jupiter, was so called from 

 a beech tree (fagus) that stood there, and was sacred to that god. 



3 Or osier. 



4 Or " plantation of the sesculus." 5 a.tj.c. 3G7. 

 6 Fee regards this as an extremely doubtful assertion. 



A A 2 



