ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, V. iv. 4-6 



say that all woods are eaten by the teredon except 

 the olive, wild or cultivated, and that these woods 

 escape because of their bitter taste. l Now woods 

 which decay in sea-water are eaten by the teredon, 

 those which decay on land by the skolex and thrips ; 

 for the teredon does not occur except in the sea. 

 It is a creature small in size, but has a large head 

 and teeth ; the thrips resembles the skolex, and these 

 creatures gradually bore through 2 timber. The harm 

 that these do is easy to remedy ; for, if the wood is 

 smeared with pitch, it does not let in water when it 

 is dragged down into the sea ; but the harm done by 

 the teredon cannot be undone. Of the skolekes which 

 occur in wood some come from the decay of the wood 

 itself, some from other skolekes which engender therein. 

 For these produce their young in timber, as the worm 

 called the ' horned worm ' 3 does in trees, having bored 

 and scooped out a sort of mouse-hole 4 by turning 

 round and round. But it avoids wood which has a 

 strong smell or is bitter or hard, such as boxwood, 

 since it is unable to bore through it. They say too 

 that the wood of the silver-fir, if barked just before 

 the time of budding, remains in water without de- 

 caying, and that this was clearly seen at Pheneos 

 in Arcadia, when their plain was turned into a lake 

 since the outlet was blocked up. 5 For at that 

 time they made 6 their bridges of this wood, and, 

 as the water rose, they placed more and more atop 

 of them, and, when the water burst its way through 

 and disappeared, all the wood was found to be 

 undecayed. This fact then became known by means 

 of an accident 



5 cf. 3. 1. 2. <t>paxOfvros conj. Sch. ; ^pa^vros Ald.H. 



6 iroiovvTfs, tyiffravres nom. pendens. 



443 



