ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, V. in. 5-7 



reversing the natural position : (by wood ' from the 

 foliage ' joiners mean the upper wood). For, when 

 these are fitted the one into the other, each counter- 

 acts l the other, as they naturally tend in opposite 

 directions : whereas, if the wood were set 2 as it 

 grows, 3 all the parts 4 would give where the strain 



came. 5 



(They do not finish off the doors at once ; but, when 

 they have put them together, stand them up, and 

 then finish them off the next year, or sometimes the 

 next year but one, 6 if they are doing specially good 

 work. For in summer, as the wood dries, the work 

 comes apart, but it closes in winter. The reason is 

 that the open fleshy texture of the wood of 

 the silver-fir 7 drinks in the air, which is full of 

 moisture.) 



8 Palm-wood is light easily worked and soft like 

 cork-oak, but is superior to that wood, as it is tough, 

 while the other is brittle. Wherefore men now make 

 their images of palm-wood and have given up the 

 wood of cork-oak. However the fibres do not run 

 throughout the wood, nor do they run to a good 

 length, nor are they all set symmetrically, but run 

 in every direction. The wood dries while it is being 

 planed and sawn. 



9 Thyon (thyine wood), which some call thya, grows 

 near the temple of Zeus Ammon and in the district 

 of Cyrene. In appearance the tree is like the 

 cypress alike in its branches, its leaves, its stem, and 

 its fruit ; or rather it is like a wild cypress. 10 There 



6 cf. Plin. 16. 215. 



7 Of which the door itself is made. 



8 Plin. 16. 211. 9 Plin. 13. 100-102. 



10 KvirdpiTTos aypla conj. Sch.; nvirapiffoov ayplav MAld. 



437 



