ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xv. 4 -xvi. 2 



soil, die even if the bark is not stripped all round. 

 This then, as has been said, is a universal cause of 

 death. 



XVI. * The process which is called topping of 

 trees is fatal only to fir silver-fir Aleppo pine 2 and date- 

 palm, though some add prickly cedar and cypress. 

 These, if they are stripped of their foliage at the 

 top 3 and the crown is cut off, perish wholly and do 

 not shoot again, as is the case with some, if not with 

 all, if they are burnt. But all other trees shoot 

 again after being lopped, and some, such as the 

 olive, 4 become all the fairer. However most trees 

 perish if the stem is split ; 5 for no tree seems able to 

 stand this, except vine fig pomegranate and apple ; 

 and some perish even if they are wounded severely 

 and deeply. Some however take no harm 6 from 

 this, as the fir when it is cut for tar, and those trees 

 from which the resins are collected, as silver-fir and 

 terebinth ; though these trees are in fact then deeply 

 wounded and mangled. Indeed they actually become 

 fruitful 7 instead of barren, or are made to bear 

 plentifully instead of scantily. 



Some trees again submit to being hewn both 

 when they are standing and when they have been 

 blown down, so that they rise up again and live and 

 shoot, for instance the willow and the plane. 8 This 

 was known to happen in Antandros and at Philippi ; 

 a plane in Antandros having fallen and had its boughs 

 lopped off and the axe applied to its trunk, grew 

 again in the night when thus relieved of the weight, 

 and the bark grew about it again. It happened that 

 it had been hewn two thirds of the way round ; it 



5 cf. G.P. 5. 16. 4 ; Plin. 17. 238. 8 cf. C.P. 5. 16. 2. 

 7 <f>opd5es conj. Sch.; QopiSes Aid. 8 Plin. 16. 133. 



409 



