522 plikt's natural histoet. [Book XVII. 



sitive to either cold or heat, as every injurious influence from 

 without is apt to concentrate in the wounds thus made. The 

 apple, however, is the most delicate of them all, and more 

 particularly the one that bears the sweetest fruit. In some 

 trees weakness induced by disease is productive of barrenness, 

 and does not kill the tree ; as in the pine" for instance, or the 

 palm, when the top of the tree has been removed ; for in such 

 case the tree becomes barren, but does not die. Sometimes, too, 

 the fruit itself is sickly, independently of the tree ; for example, 

 when there is a deficiency of rain, or of warmth, or of wind, 

 at the periods at which they usually prevail, or when, on the 

 other hand, they have prevailed in excess ; for in such cases the 

 fruit will either drop off or else deteriorate. But the worst 

 thing of all that can befall the vine or the olive, is to be pelted 

 with heavy showers just when the tree is shedding its blossom, 

 for then the fruit is sure to fall oh 01 as well. 



Eain, too, is productive of the caterpillar, a noxious insect 

 that eats away the leaves, and, some of them, the blossoms as 

 well ; and this in the olive even, as we find the case at Miletus ; 

 giving to the half-eaten tree a most loathsome appearance. This 

 pest is produced by the prevalence of a damp, languid heat ; 

 and if the sun should happen to shine after this with a more 

 intense heat and burn them up, this pest only gives place to 

 another 2 just as bad, the aspect only of the evil being changed. 



There is still one other affection that is peculiar to the olive 

 and the vine, known as the " cobweb," 3 the fruit being en- 

 veloped in a web, as it were, and so stifled. There are certain 

 winds, too, that are particularly blighting to the olive and the 

 vine, as also to other fruits as well : and then besides, the fruits 

 themselves, independently of the tree, are very much worm- 

 eaten in some years, the apple, pear, medlar, and pomegranate 

 for instance. In the olive the presence of the worm may be 



99 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16. If the terminal bud 

 of the palm is taken off, it will mostly die. 



1 " Decidunt." The French use a similar word — couler. In this case the 

 pollen, being washed off by the showers, has not the opportunity of fecun- 

 dating the ovary of the flower. 



2 The insect Ichneumon or Pupivora, probably, which breeds in the 

 larvae or else in the body of the caterpillar. The passage is from Theo- 

 phrastus, B. iv. c. 16. 



3 Caused probably by a maggot or moth passing from one grape or olive 

 to another, and spinning its web in vast quantities. See Theophrastus, 

 B iv. c. 17. 



