ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. x. 1-2 



which is however without prickles ^ and smooth, not 

 spinous,- like the chestnut, though in sweetness and 

 flavour it resembles it. In mountain country it also 

 grows white and has^ timber which is useful for 

 many purposes, for making carts beds chairs and 

 tables, and for shipbuilding * ; Avhile the tree of the 

 plains is black and useless for these purposes ; but 

 the fruit is much the same in both. 



^ The yeAv has also but one kind, is straight- 

 growing, grows readily, and is like the silver-fir, 

 except that it is not so tall and is more branched. 

 Its leaf is also like that of the silver-fir, but glossier 

 and less stiff. As to the wood, in the Arcadian yew 

 it is black or red, in that of Ida bright yellow and 

 like prickly cedar ; wherefore they sjiy that dealers 

 practise deceit, selling it for that wood : for that it is 

 all heart, when the bark is stripped off ; its bark also 

 resembles that of prickly cedar in roughness and 

 colour, its roots are few slender and shallow. The 

 tree is rare about Ida, but common in Macedonia and 

 Arcadia ; it bears a round fruit a little larger than a 

 bean, which is red in colour and soft ; and they say 

 that, if beasts of burden *' eat of the leaves they die, 

 wliile ruminants take no hurt. Even men sometimes 

 eat the fruit, which is sweet and harmless. 



- aKcwddSei conj. R. Const.; aKavddiSyt Ald.H. 



^ Xti/Ki) ^ Kol eonj. W. ; \fvicn re koI Ald.H. 



^ cj. 5. 6. 4 ; 5. 7. 2 and 6. 



^ Plin. 16. 62. (description taken from this passage, but 

 applied to fraxinus, apparently from confusion between 

 filKos and fifXla). 



« c/. 2. 7. 4 n. 



223 



