ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, V. ix. 4-6 



smooth l billets : for they must be laid as close as 

 possible for the smouldering process. When they 

 have covered 2 the kiln, they kindle the heap by 

 degrees, stirring it with poles. Such is the wood 

 required for the charcoal-heap. 



In general damp wood makes an evil smoke, and 

 for this reason green wood does so : I mean the 

 damp woods which grow in marshy ground, such 

 as plane willow abele black poplar : for even 

 vine-wood, when it is damp, gives an evil smoke. 

 So does palm-wood of its own nature, and some 

 have supposed it to give the most evil smoke of all : 

 whence Chaeremon 3 speaks of "Veins issuing under- 

 ground from roots of palm with its malodorous smoke." 

 Most pungent is the smoke of fig- wood, whether 

 wild or cultivated, and of any tree which has a 

 curdling juice; the reason lies in the sap; when 

 such wood has been barked and soaked in running 



O 



water and then dried, it gives as little smoke as 

 any other, and sends up a very soft 4 flame, since 

 its natural moisture also has been removed. The 

 cinders and ashes of such wood are also pungent, 

 and especially, they say, those of almond-wood. 



For the crafts requiring a furnace and for other 

 crafts various woods are serviceable according to 

 circumstances. 5 For kindling fig and olive are best : 

 fig, because it is tough and of open texture, so that 

 it easily catches fire and does not let it through, 6 

 olive, because it is of close texture and oily. 



thus : TOV re SvaKaitvaTaTov \ tyolviKos in 7775 

 <f>\efias (pio<piTVTovs conj. Schneidewin). 



4 i.e. not sputtering. 



6 KO.I . . . \pt\a iy.f\ conj. W. ; Tf'xfats dAArjAo 

 T. aAArjAas XP' MV; re'x^Tj &\\TJ effn xp. P ; T. aAArjAou tori 

 Aid. i.e. burn out quicldy. 



47* 



