ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. n. 2-4 



is the most abundant, the grossest and the most pitch- 

 like, because this tree has the greatest amount of 

 resinous wood. It is carried about in baskets in a 

 liquid state, and so acquires the more solid form which 

 we know. However they say that in Syria pitch is 

 extracted even from the terebinth by burning 1 ; for 

 there is in that land a mountain which, as we said 

 before, 2 is all covered with great terebinths. 



Some 3 say the same of Aleppo pine and also of 

 Phoenician cedar ; but this must be taken as only 

 indicating what can be done, the practice not 

 being common ; for the people of Macedonia do not 

 extract pitch by burning even from fir, except from 

 the e male ' kind (they call the kind which bears no 

 fruit 4 the ' male ') ; the ' female ' kind they only 

 treat in this way when they have found roots con- 

 taining pitch ; for all firs have resinous wood ex- 

 tending to the roots. 5 The finest and purest pitch 

 is that obtained from trees growing in a sunny 

 position and facing north 6 ; that obtained from trees 

 growing in shade is coarser 7 and muddy ; (in ex- 

 ceedingly shady places the fir does not even grow 

 at all). 



Again the yield may be either good or bad as to 

 amount and as to quality ; thus, when there is a 

 moderate winter, it is abundant and good and whiter 

 in colour, but, when there is a severe winter, it is 

 scanty and of inferior quality. And it is these 

 conditions, and not the tree's capacity for bearing 

 fruit, which determine the amount and quality of 

 pitch. 



6 Apparently because this is the dry quarter in the Balkan 

 peninsula. 



7 &\o(T(apcaTfpa conj. Sch.; fipoffripoTcpa M ; ft\oo"r)poTfpa Aid. 

 of C. p. 6. 12. 5. 



22 5 



VOL. II. Q 



