ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. vi. 5-vii. 2 



has shallow roots and few of them ^ ; but manna-ash 

 has more and they are thickly matted and run 

 deep ; . Phoenician cedar and prickly cedar, they say, 

 have shallow roots, those of alder are slender and 

 ' plain,' - as also are those of beech ; for this too has 

 few roots, and they are near the surface. Sorb, they 

 say, has its roots near the surface, but they are 

 strong and thick and hard to kill, though not very 

 numerous. Such are the trees which are or are 



not deep-rooting. 



Of the effects of cutting doicn the rchole or part of a tree. 



VII. Almost all trees shoot from the side if the 

 trunk is cut down, unless the roots have previously 

 been injured ; but fir and silver-fir wither away ^ 

 completely from the roots within the year, if merely 

 the top has been cut off. And there is a peculiar 

 thing about the silver-fir; when it is topped or 

 broken off short by ^vind or some other cause 

 affecting the smooth part of the trunk — for up to a 

 certain height the trunk is smooth knotless and 

 plain * (and so suitable for making a ship's mast ^), — 

 a certain amount of new growth forms round it, 

 which does not however grow much vertically : and 

 this is called by some amphauxis ^ and by others 

 amphiphi/a ** ; it is black in colour and exceedingly 

 hard, and the Arcadians make their mixing-bowls 

 out of it ; the thickness is in proportion " to the tree, 

 according as that is more or less vigorous and sappy, 

 or again according to its thickness. There ^ is this 

 peculiarity too in the silver-fir in the same connexion ; 



* Two words meaning ' growth about,' i.e. callns. 

 '• oiov ftv conj. W. ; olov 4av Aid. ; ovov tiv conj. ScaL 

 « Plin. 16. 123. 



197 



