378 plint's natukal histoht. [Book XVL 



thorn in place of a leaf. The leaf of the cypress and the tama- 

 risk 60 is flesh}-, and that of the alder is remarkable for its 

 thickness. 61 In the reed, the willow, and the palm, 62 the leaf 

 is long, and in the latter tree it is double as well : that of the 

 pear is rounded, and it is pointed in the apple. 63 In the ivy 

 the leaf is angular, and in the plane divided. 64 In the pitch- 

 tree 65 and the fir the leaf is indented like the teeth of a comb ; 

 while in the robur it is sinuous on the whole of the outer 

 margin : in the bramble it has a spiny surface. In some 

 plants the leaf has the property of stinging, the nettle for in- 

 stance ; while in the pine, 66 the pitch-tree, the fir, the larch, 

 the cedar, and the holly, it is prickly. In the olive and the 

 holm-oak it has a short stalk, in the vine a long one : in the 

 poplar the stalk of the leaf is always quivering, 67 and the leaves 

 of this tree are the only ones that make a crackling noise 08 

 when coming in contact with another. 



In one variety of the apple-tree 69 we find a small leaf pro- 

 truding from the very middle of the fruit, sometimes, indeed, 

 a couple of them. Then, again, in some trees the leaves are 

 arranged all round the branches, and in others at the extremities 

 of them, while in the robur they are found upon the trunk 

 itself. They are sometimes thick and close, and at others 

 thinly scattered, which is more particularly the case where the 

 leaf is large and broad. In the myrtle 70 they are symmetrically 



of the holm-oak which he has previously called "aquifolia," apparently 

 confounding it with the holly. See c. 8 of this Book. 



60 See B. xiii. c. 37. 



6 * This must be understood of the young leaf of the alder, which has a 

 sort of thick gummy varnish on it. 



62 B. xiii. c. 7. 



63 B. xv. c. 15. Pliny is not correct here; the leaf of the pear is oval 

 or lanceolated, while that of the apple is oval and somewhat angular, though 

 not exactly " mucronata," or sharply pointed. 



64 Not exactly "divided," but strongly lobed. 



65 If this is the case, the pitch-tree can hardly be identical with the 

 false fir, the Abies exeelsa of Decandolles. See c. 18 of this Book, and 

 the Note. 



66 This passage would be apt to mislead, did we not know that the leaves 

 of the coniferous trees here mentioned are not prickly, in the same sense 

 an those of the holly, which are armed with very formidable weapons. 



67 More particularly in the Populus trernula, the " quivering" poplar. 

 w Crepitantia. 



69 See B. xv. c. 15. Not a species, but an accidental monstrosity. 

 10 See B. xv. c. 37 ? where he speaks of the Hexastich myrtle. 



