ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. ix. 7-x. i 



called its white ' centre,' which answers, as it were, to 

 the aigis of the fir, except that it is white, while 

 the other is bright-coloured because it is glutted with 

 pitch. It becomes close white and good in trees 

 which are of some age, but it is seldom found in good 

 condition, while the ordinary form of it is abundant 

 and is used to make painters' boards and ordinary 

 writing tablets,^ superior ones being 2 made of the 

 better form. 



However the Arcadians call both substances ai^s, 

 alike that of the fir ^ and the corresponding pai-t of 

 the silver-fir,* and say that, though the silver-fir 

 produces more, that of the fir is better ; for that, 

 though that of the silver-fir is abundant ^ smooth and 

 close, that of the fir, though scanty, is compacter 

 stronger and fairer in general. The Arcadians then 

 appear to differ as to the names which they give. 

 Such are the differences in the silver-fir as com- 

 pared with the fir, and there is also that of having 

 the amphauxis,^ which we mentioned before. 



Of beech, yew, hop-homheajn, lime. 



X. The beech presents no differences, there being 

 but one kind. It is a straight-growing smooth and 

 unbranched tree, and in thickness and height is 

 about equal to the silver-fir, which it also resembles 

 in other respects ; the wood is of a fair colour strong 

 and of good grain, the bark smooth and thick, the 

 leaf undivided, longer than a pear-leaf, spinous at the 

 tip," the roots neither numerous nor running deep ; 

 the fruit is smooth like an acorn, enclosed in a shell, 



' iroW^v conj. Gesner ; ov\riv UmBas. ; 3\rjv MVAld. 



« cf. 3. 7. 1. 



^ i.e. mucroriate. cf. 3. 11. 3. 



