386 PLTNY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVI. 



herself, is never green. Those trees which produce a gum 

 open of themselves after germination : the gum never thickens 

 until after the fruit has been removed. 



CHAP. 46. TREES WHICH LOSE THEIR ERT7IT OR FLOWERS MOST 



READILY. 



Young trees are unproductive 18 so long as they are growing. 

 The fruits which fall most readily before they come to maturity 

 are the date, the fig, the almond, the apple, the pear, and the 

 pomegranate, which last tree is also very apt to lose its blossom 

 through excessive dews and hoar frosts. For this reason it is, 

 too, that the growers bend the branches of the pomegranate, lest, 

 from being straight, they may receive and retain the moisture 

 that is so injurious to them. The pear and the almond, 19 even 

 if it should not rain, but a south wind happen to blow or the 

 weather become cloudy, are apt to lose their blossoms, and their 

 first fruit as well, if, after the blossom has fallen, there is a 

 continuance of such weather. But it is the willow that loses 

 its seed the most speedily of all, long, indeed, before it is ripe ; 

 hence it is that Homer has given it the epithet of " fruit- 

 losing." 20 Succeeding ages, however, have given to this term 

 an interpretation conformable to their own wicked practices, it 

 being a well-known fact that the seed of the willow has the 

 effect of producing barrenness in females. 



In this respect, however, Nature has employed her usual 

 foresight, bestowing but little care upon the seed of a tree 

 which is produced so easily, and propagated by slips. There 

 is, however, it is said, one variety of willow, 21 the seed of which 

 arrives at maturity : it is found in the Isle of Crete, at the 

 descent from the grotto of Jupiter : the seed is unsightly and 

 ligneous, and in size about as large as a chick-pea. 



18 This must not be taken to the letter ; indeed, Fee thinks that the 

 proper meaning is : — "Young trees do not produce fruit till they have 

 arrived at a certain state of maturity." Trees mostly continue on the 

 increase till they die. 



19 See B. xvi'i. c. 2. The assertion here made has not been confirmed 

 by experience. 



20 « Frugiperda :" in the Greek, uktviKapirov. See Homer. Od. x. 1. 510. 

 It has been suggested, Pliny says, that the willow seed had this epithet 

 from its effect in causing abortion ; but he does not seem to share the 

 opinion. 



- 1 This cannot be a willow, Fee remarks ; indeed, Theophrastus, B, iii. 

 c. 5, speaks of a black poplar as growing there. 



