ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. i.\. 3-4 



reason being that it is less resinous, less soaked with 

 pitch, smoother, and of straighter grain. 1 This aigis 

 is found in the larger trees, when, as they have fallen 

 down, the white outside part 2 has decayed ; when 

 this has been stripped off and the core left, it is 

 cut out of this with the axe ; and it is of a good 

 colour with fine fibre. However the substance 

 which the torch-cutters of Mount Ida call the ' fig/ 3 

 which forms in the fir and is redder in colour than 

 the resin, is found more in the ( male ' trees ; it has 

 an evil smell, not like the smell of resin, nor will it 

 burn, but it leaps away from the fire. 



4 Such are the kinds of fir which they make out, 

 the cultivated and the wild, the latter including the 

 ' male ' and the ' female ' and also the kind which 

 bears no fruit. However the Arcadians say that 

 neither the sterile kind nor the cultivated is a fir, 

 but a pine ; for, they say, the trunk closely resembles 

 the pine and has its slenderness, its stature, and the 

 same kind 5 of wood for purposes of joinery, the 

 trunk of the fir being thicker smoother and taller ; 

 moreover that the fir has many leaves, which are 

 glossy massed together 6 and pendent, while in the 

 pine and in the above-mentioned cone-bearing tree " 

 the leaves are few and drier and stiffer ; though in 

 both the leaves are hair-like. 8 Also, they say, the 

 pitch of this tree is more like that of the pine ; for 



4 TavTo. yevn conj. R. Const, from G ; ravrd ye UMVAlcl. ; 

 Plin. 16. 45-49. 



5 ravr}) conj. W.; avrb Aid. 



B a0e'a : Sacre'a conj. R. Const, cf. 3. 16. 2. 



7 i.e. the cultivated irevK-n (so called). T. uses this peri- 

 phrasis to avoid begging the question of the name. 



8 &/j.<f)(a 8e rpix- ins. here by Sch. ; in MSS. and Aid. the 

 words occur in 5 after -n-irruSfffrfpov. 



215 



