414 pliny's NATURAL HISTOEY. [Book XVI. 



which are employed for making tables, the trees are split into 

 planks lengthwise, and the parts are then selected along which 

 the fibres run, and properly rounded ; for the wood would be 

 too brittle to use if it were cut in segments crosswise. 83 In 

 the beech, the grain of the fibrous part runs crosswise ; 84 hence 

 it is that the ancients held in such high esteem all vessels made 

 with the wood of it. Manius Curius made oath, on one occa- 

 sion, that he had not touched an article of all the spoil except 

 a single oil cruet 85 of beech, to Use for sacrificing. Wood 

 is always put lengthwise into the water to season, as that part 

 which was nearest the root will sink to a greater 86 depth than 

 the other. In some wood there is fibre, without veins, and merely 

 consisting of filaments slightly knit together: wood of this 

 nature is remarkably fissile. Other wood, again, is more easily 

 broken across than split, such as the wood of those trees that 

 have no fibre, the olive and the vine, for instance : on the other 

 hand, in the fig-tree, the whole of the body consists of flesh. 87 

 The holm-oak, the .cornel, the robur, the cytisus, the mulberry, 

 the ebony, the lotus, and the other trees which we have 

 mentioned 88 as being destitute of marrow, consist entirely of 

 bone. 89 All these woods are of a blackish colour, with the 

 exception of the cornel, of which glossy yellow hunting-spears 

 are made, marked with incisions for their further embellish- 

 ment. In the cedar, the juniper, and the larch, the wood 

 is red. 



(39.) In Greece the female larch furnishes a wood 90 which 

 is known as aegis, and is just the colour of honey. This wood 

 has been found to be proof against decay, and forms the pannels 

 used by painters, being never known to gape or split ; the 

 portion thus employed is that which lies nearest to the pith. In 

 the fir-tree this part is called " leuson" by the Greeks. In the 

 cedar, too, the hardest part is the wood that lies nearest to the 



83 And at an angle with the grain or fibre of the wood. 



84 And at right angles. In the Dicotyledons, the disposition of the fibres 

 is longitudinal and transversal. 



85 Guttum. . 



86 For the simple reason, because the part near the root is of greater 

 diameter. 



87 Soft ligneous layers. ^ In c. 72 of this Book. 



89 Hard wood — such as we know generally as "heart;" "heart of 

 oak" for instance. 



90 Probably that of Uie ligneous layers near the pith or sap. 



