394 PLINY* S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XYL 



these fine filaments, and weave with them very handsome 

 flasks, 63 and various other articles. 



Some writers say that the roots of trees do not descend 

 below the level to which the sun's heat is able to penetrate ; 

 which, of course, depends upon the nature of the soil, whether 

 it happens to be thin or dense. This, however, I look upon 64 

 as a mistake : and, in fact, we find it stated by some authors 

 that a fir was transplanted, the roots of which had penetrated 

 eight cubits in depth, and even then the whole of it was not 

 dug up, it being torn asunder. 65 The citrus has a root that 

 goes the very deepest of all, and is of great extent ; next after 

 it come the plane, the robur, and the various glandiferous 

 trees. In some trees, the laurel for instance, the roots are 

 more tenacious of life the nearer they are to the surface : 

 hence, when the trunk withers, it is cut down, and the tree 

 shoots again with redoubled vigour. Some think that the 

 shorter the roots are, the more rapidly the tree decays ; a sup- 

 position which is plainly contradicted by the fig, the root of 

 which is among the very largest, while the tree becomes aged 

 at a remarkably early period. I regard also as incorrect what 

 some authors have stated, as to the roots of trees diminishing 66 

 when they are old ; for I once saw an ancient oak, uprooted 

 by a storm, the roots of which covered a jugerum of ground. 



CHAP. 57. TREES WHICH HAVE GROWN SPONTANEOUSLY EROM THE 



GROUND. 



It is a not uncommon thing for trees when uprooted to re- 

 ceive new strength when replanted, the earth about their roots 

 forming a sort of cicatrix 67 there. This is particularly the 



68 "Lagenas." Fee takes this to mean here vessels to hold liquids, and 

 remarks that the workers in wicker cannot attain this degree of perfection 

 at the present day. 



64 Pliny is in error in rejecting this notion. 



65 See B. xii. c. 5, and B. xiii. c. 29. What Pliny states of the fir, or 

 Abies pectinata, Theophrastus relates of the ttsiikt], or Abies excelsa of 

 Decandolles. There is little doubt that in either case the statement is in- 

 correct. 



66 On the contrary, the roots of trees increase in size till the period of 

 their death. 



67 By preventing the action of the air from drying the roots, and so kill- 

 ing the tree. 



