ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xm. 4-6 



places, but likewise in places which are not of this 

 character. It is shrubby, with annual branches which 

 go on growing in length till the fall of the leaf, after 

 which they increase in thickness. The branches do 

 not grow to a very great height, about six cubits at 

 most. The thickness of the stem of old trees is 

 about that of the ( helmet ' l of a ship ; the bark is 

 smooth thin and brittle 2 ; the wood is porous and 

 light when dried, and has a soft heart-wood, 8 so that 

 the boughs are hollow right through, and men make 

 of them their light walking-sticks. When dried it is 

 strong and durable if it is soaked, even if it is stripped 

 of the bark; and it strips itself of its own accord as it 

 dries. The roots are shallow and neither numerous 

 nor large. The single leaflet is soft and oblong, like 

 the leaf of the 'broad-leaved' bay, but larger broader 

 and rounder at the middle and base, though the tip 

 narrows more to a point and is jagged 4 all round. 

 The whole leaf is composed of leaflets growing about 

 a single thick fibrous stalk, as it were, to which they 

 are attached at either side in pairs at each joint; 

 and they are separate from one another, while one 

 is attached to the tip of the stalk. The leaves are 

 somewhat reddish porous and fleshy : the whole is 

 shed in one piece ; wherefore one may consider the 

 whole structure as a 'leaf.' 5 The young twigs too 

 have certain crooks 6 in them. The flower 7 is white, 

 made up of a number of small white blossoms 

 attached to the point where the stalk divides, 

 in form like a honeycomb, and it lias the heavy 



4 Xapay,u.6v conj. R. Const, from G ; irapay/j.6v UMV; 

 ffiraoay/j.6v Aid. 6 cf. 3. 11. 3 n. 



6 7&>'oei5?l U; "iytavioeiSri ; G seems to have read yovaroeiSri; 

 Sch. considers the text defective or mutilated. 



^ cf. 3. 12. 7 u. 



247 



