ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xi. 1-3 



divided ; it is smooth/ but more delicate, less fleshy, 

 softer, longer in proportion to its breadth, and the 

 divisions - all ^ tend to meet in a point, while they 

 do not occur so much in the middle of the leaf,* 

 but rather at the tip ; and for their size the leaves 

 have not many fibres.^ The bark too is somewhat 

 rougher than that of the lime, of blackish colour 

 thick closer^ than that of the Aleppo pine and stiff; 

 the roots are few shallow and compact for the most 

 part, both those of the yellow and those of the white- 

 wooded tree. This tree occurs chiefly in wet ground,*^ 

 as the people of Mount Ida say, and is rare. About 

 its flower they did ^ not know, but the fruit, they said, 

 is not very oblong, but like that of Christ's thorn,"-* 

 except that it is more oblong than that. But the 

 people of Mount Olympus say that, while zygia is 

 rather a mountain tree, the maple proper grows also 

 in the plains ; and that the form which grows in the 

 mountains has yellow wood of a bright colour, which 

 is of compact texture and hard, and is used even for 

 expensive work, while that of the plains has white 

 wood of looser make and less compact texture. And 



some call it gleinos ^^ instead of maple ^1 The 



wood of the ' male ' tree is of compacter texture and 

 twisted ; this tree, it is said, grows rather in the 

 plain and puts forth its leaves earlier. 



1- There are also two kinds of ash. Of these one is 

 lofty and of strong growth with white wood of good 

 fibre, softer, with less knots, and of more compact 



" -rvKvSTepov conj. Seal, from G ; -Kvpiintpov UAld. 

 '^ e<l>vSpoii : v<l>vSpois cc>nj. Sch. cf. vpufifios, v-roverpos. 

 8 c/. 3. 9. 6 n.; Intr. p. xx. » cf. 3. 18. 3. 



"» cf. 3. 3. 1 ; Plin. 16. 67. 



" W. marks a lacuna : the description of the ' female ' 

 tree seems to be missing. ^- Plin. 16. 62-64. 



229 



