526 plint's natural history. [Book XVII. 



upon as possessed of the sense of smell, and affected by odours 

 in a singular degree ; hence, when it is near a noxious exhala- 

 tion, it will turn away and withdraw from it. It was from 

 his observation of this fact that Androcydes borrowed the 

 radish 26 as his antidote for drunkenness, recommending it to 

 be eaten on such occasions. The vine, too, abhors all cole- 

 worts and garden herbs, and the hazel 21 as well ; indeed it will 

 become weak and ailing if they are not removed to a distance 

 from it. Nitre, alum, warm sea- water, and the shells of beans 28 

 and fitches act as poisons on the vine. 



CHAP. 38. (25.) PRODIGIES CONNOTED WITH TREES. 



Among the maladies which affect the various trees, we may 

 find room for portentous prodigies also. For we find some 

 trees that have never had a leaf upon them ; a vine and a pome- 

 granate bearing 29 fruit adhering to the trunk, and not upon 

 the shoots or branches ; a vine, too, that bore grapes but had 

 no leaves ; and olives that have lost their leaves while the fruit 

 remained upon the tree. There are some marvels also connected 

 with trees that are owing to accident ; an olive that was com- 

 pletely burnt, has been known to revive, and in Boeotia, some 

 fig-trees that had been quite eaten away by locusts budded 

 afresh. 30 Trees, too, sometimes change their colour, and turn 

 from black to white ; this, however, must not always be looked 

 upon as portentous, and more particularly in the case of those 

 which are grown from seed; the white poplar, too, often becomes 

 black. Some persons are of opinion also that the service-tree, 

 if transplanted to a warmer locality, will become barren. But 

 it is a prodigy, no doubt, when sweet fruits become sour, or 

 sour fruits sweet; and when the wild fig becomes changed 

 into the cultivated one, or vice versa. It is sadly portentous, 31 

 too, when the tree becomes deteriorated by the change, the 

 cultivated olive changing into the wild, and the white grape 

 or fig becoming black : such was the case, also, when upon the 

 arrival of Xerxes there, a plane-tree at Laodicea was trans- 



26 See B. xix. c. 26. 27 Virgil shared this belief: see Georg.ii. 1. 299. 



28 This may be true in some measure as to nitre, alum, and warm sea- 

 water ; but not so as to the shells of beans and pigeon-pease, which would 

 make an excellent manure for it. 



29 This, as Fee remarks, is not by any means impossible, nor, indeed, 

 are any other of the cases mentioned in this paragraph, owing to some 

 accidental circumstance. 30 See B. xxix. c. 29. 



31 These stories can, of course, be only regarded as fabulous. 



