Chap. 73.] THE VEINS AND FIBRES OF TREES. 413 



and in the robur even will very easily rot, being particularly 

 liable to wood-worm, for which reason it is invariably removed. 

 Beneath this fat lies the flesh 77 of the tree, and then under 

 that, its bo.nes, or, in other words, the choicest part of the wood. 

 Those trees which have a dry wood, the olive, for instance, 

 bear fruit every other year only : this is more the case with 

 them than with those the wood of which is of a fleshy nature, 

 such as the cherry, for instance. It is not all trees, too, that 

 have this fat and flesh in any abundance, the same as we find 

 to be the case among the more active animals. The box, the 

 cornel, and the olive have none at all, nor yet any marrow, and 

 a very small proportion, too, of blood. In the same way, too, 

 the service-tree has no bones, and the elder no flesh, while 

 both of them have marrow in the greatest abundance. Reeds, 

 too, have hardly any flesh. 



CHAP. 73. THE VEINS AND FIBRES OF TREES. 



In the flesh of some trees we find both fibres 78 and veins : 

 they are easily distinguished. The veins 79 are larger, while 

 the fibres are of whiter material, and are to be found in those 

 woods more particularly which are easily split. Hence it is that 

 if the ear is applied to the extremity of a beam of wood, how- 

 ever long, a tap with a graver 80 even upon the other end may 

 be distinctly heard, the sound penetrating by the passages 

 which run straight through it : by these means it is that we 

 ascertain whether timber runs awry, or is interrupted by knots. 

 The tuberosities which we find on trees resemble the kernels 8 - 1 

 that are formed in flesh : they contain neither veins nor fibres, 

 but only a kind of tough, solid flesh, rolled up in a sort of 

 ball : it is these tuberosities that are the most esteemed parts 82 

 in the citrus and the maple. As to the other kinds of wood 



77 He means the outer ligneous layers of the wood. They differ only 

 in their relative hardness. 



78 " Pulpae." The ligneous fibres which form the tissue of the hark. 



-9 « Venae." By this term he probably means the nutritive vessels and the 

 ligneous fibres united. It was anciently the general belief that the fibres 

 atted their part in the nutriment of the tree. 



80 " Graphium." Properly a stylus or iron pen, 



81 " Glandia." This analogy, Fee remarks, does not hold good. 

 83 See B. xiii. c. 29, and c. 27 of this Book. 



