Chap. 37.] THE DISEASES OF TREES. 525 



the pitch-tree, the cedar, and the cypress is productive of a 

 similar result ; for if it is either cut off or destroyed by fire, 

 the tree will not survive : the same is the case, too, if they 

 are bitten by the teeth of animals. 



Varro 15 informs us, too, as we have already stated, 16 that the 

 olive, if only licked by a she-goat, will be barren/ 7 When 

 thus injured, some trees will die, while in others the fruit be- 

 comes deteriorated, the almond, ls for instance, the fruit of which 

 changes from sweet to bitter. In other cases, again, the tree is 

 improved 19 even — such, for instance, as the pear known in Chios 

 as the Phocian pear. We have already mentioned 20 certain 

 trees, also, that are all the better for having the tops removed. 

 Most trees perish when the trunk is split ; but we must except 

 the vine, the apple, the fig, and the pomegranate. Others, 

 again, will die if only a wound is inflicted : the fig, however, 

 as well as all the resinous trees, is proof against such injury. 

 It is far from surprising that, when the roots of a tree are cut, 

 death should be the result ; most of them perish, however, 

 when, not all the roots, but only the larger ones, and those 

 which are more essential to life, have been severed. 



Trees, too, will kill one another 21 by their shade, or the 

 density of their foliage, as also by the withdrawal of nourish- 

 ment. Ivy, 22 by clinging to a tree, will strangle 23 it. The 

 mistletoe, too, is far from beneficial, and the cytisus is killed 

 by the plant to which the Greeks have given the name of 

 halimon. 24 It is the nature of some plants not to kill, but to 

 injure, by the odour they emit, or by the admixture of their 

 juices ; such is the influence exercised by the radish and the 

 laurel upon the vine. 25 Tor the vine may reasonably be looked 



15 De Re Rust. B. i. c. 2. 16 In B. viii. c. 76, and B. xv. c. 8. 



17 This statement is fabulous. Goats are apt to injure trees by biting 

 the buds and young shoots. Fabulous as it is, however," Fee remarks that 

 it still obtains credit among the peasantry in France. 



18 This fabulous story is taken from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. v. c. 25. 



19 Also from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. cc. 19-20, and De Causis, 

 B. v. c. 22. It is just possible that on some of the branches heing torn 

 off bv an animal, the tree may have grown with increased vigour. 



20 'in B. xiii. c. 9, and in c. 30 of this Book. 2l See B. xvi. c. 47. 



22 It must he remembered that ivy is not a parasite, and that it has no 

 suckers to absorb the nutriment of another tree. 



23 See B. xvi. c. 62. 



24 C. Bauhin gives this name to several species of Atriplex. Lacuna 

 was of opinion that the Halimon of Dioscorides was the same as the 

 Viburnum. 25 A superstitious belief only, as Fee remarks. 



