ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, V. in. y-iv. i 



is abundance of it where now the city stands, and 

 men can still recall that some of the roofs in ancient 

 times were made of it. For the wood is absolutely 

 proof against decay, and the root is of very compact 

 texture, and they make of it the most valuable 

 articles. Images are carved from these woods, 

 prickly cedar cypress nettle-tree box, and the small 

 ones also from the roots of the olive, which are 

 unbreakable and of a more or less uniformly fleshy 

 character. The above facts illustrate certain 



special features of position, natural character and 

 use. 



Of differences in timber as to hardness and heaviness. 



IV. Difference in weight is clearly to be determined 

 by closeness or openness of texture, dampness or 

 dryness, degree of glutinousriess, hardness or softness. 

 Now some woods are both hard and heavy, as box 

 and oak, while those that are brittle and hardest 

 owing to their dryness, are not heavy. l All wood of 

 wild trees, as we have said before, is closer harder 

 heavier, and in general stronger than that of the 

 cultivated forms, and there is the same difference 

 between the wood of ' male ' and of ' female ' trees, 

 and in general between trees which bear no fruit and 

 those which have fruit, and between those which 

 bear inferior fruit and those whose fruit is better ; on 

 the other hand occasionally the ' male ' tree is the 

 more fruitful, for instance, it is said, the cypress the 

 cornelian cherry and others. However of vines it is 

 clear that those which bear less fruit have also more 

 frequent knots and are more solid, 2 and so too with 

 apples and other cultivated trees. 



1 Plin. 16. 211. 2 cf. G.P. 3. 11. 1. 



439 



