NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. 



BOOK XXIV. 



THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FOREST TREES. 



CHAP. l.(l.) THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES WHICH EXIST 

 AMONG TUBES AND PLANTS. 



even are the forests and the spots in which the aspect of 

 Nature is most rugged, destitute of their peculiar remedies ; 

 for so universally has that divine parent of all things distributed 

 her succours for the benefit of man, as to implant for him 

 medicinal virtues in the trees of the desert even, while at 

 every step she presents us with most wonderful illustrations of 

 those antipathies and sympathies which exist in the vegetable 

 world. 



Between the quercus 1 and the olive 2 there exists a hatred 

 so inveterate, that transplanted, either of them, to a site pre- 

 viously occupied by the other, they will die. 3 The quercus 

 too, if planted near the walnut, will perish. There is a mortal 

 feud 4 existing also between the cabbage and the vine ; and the 

 cabbage itself, so shunned as it is by the vine, will wither im- 

 mediately if planted in the vicinity of cyclamen 6 or of origanum. 

 We find it asserted even, that aged trees fit to be felled, are 

 cut with all the greater difficulty, and dry all the more rapidly, 



1 See B. xvi. cc. 6, 8, 33, 50. 2 See B. xvii. c. 3. 



3 As Fee justly remarks, the greater part of these so-called sympathies 

 and antipathies must be looked upon as so many fables. In the majority of 

 instances, it is the habitual requirements of the tree or plant that con- 

 stitute the difference ; thus, for instance, the oak or quercus requires a 

 different site and temperature from that needed by the olive, and the stony 

 soil adopted by the vine is but ill-suited for the cultivation of the cabbage. 



4 See B. xx. c. 36. 



5 See B. xxi, cc. 27, 38, and B. xxv. c. 67. 



VOL. V. B 



