422 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVI. 



01 



. to that of the laurel for rubbing with. A species of wild 

 vine, 29 too— not the same as the labrusca— which climbs up 

 other trees like the ivy, is highly approved of. The coldest 30 

 woods of all are those of the aquatic trees ; but they are the 

 most flexible also, and for that reason the best adapted for the 

 construction of bucklers. On an incision being made in them, 

 they will contract immediately, and so close up their wounds, 

 at the same time rendering it more difficult for the iron to pe- 

 netrate : in the number of these woods are the fig, the willow, 

 the lime, the birch, the elder, and both varieties of the poplar. 

 The lightest of all these woods, and consequently the most 

 useful, are the fig and the willow. They are all of them em- 

 ployed, however, in the manufacture of baskets and other 

 utensils of wicker-work ; while, at the same time, they pos- 

 sess a degree of whiteness and hardness which render them 

 very well adapted for carving. The plane has considerable 

 flexibility, but it is moist and slimy like the alder. _ The elm, 

 too, the ash, the mulberry, and the cherry, are flexible, but of 

 a drier nature ; the wood, however, is more weighty. The 

 elm is the best of all for retaining its natural toughness, and 

 hence it is more particularly employed for socket beams for 

 hinges, and cases for the pannelling of doors, being proof 

 against warping. It is requisite, however, that the beam to 

 receive the hinge should be inverted when set up, the top of 

 the tree answering to the lower hinge, the root to the upper. 

 The wood of the palm and the cork-tree is soft, while that of 

 the apple and the pear is compact. Such, however, is not the 

 case with the maple, its wood being brittle, as, in fact, all 

 veined woods are. In every kind of tree, the varieties in the 

 wood are still more augmented by the wild trees and the males. 

 The wood, too, of the barren tree is more solid than that of the 

 fruit-bearing ones, except in those species in which the male 

 trees 31 bear fruit, the cypress and the cornel, for instance. 



CHAP. 78. TREES WHICH ARE PROOF AGAINST DECAY: TREES 



WHICH NEVER SPLIT. 



The following trees are proof against decay and the other- 



29 See B. xxiv. c. 49. The Viticella, belonging to the genus clematis. 



30 This unfounded notion is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. y. c. 4. 



8' In the modern botanical sense of the word, the male trees do not 

 bear at all. 



