ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xii. 8 -xiti. i 



which is glistening and swollen as though the tree 

 were just about to burst into leaf, and this persists 

 through the winter. The sorb, like the medlar, is 

 thomless ; it has smooth rather shiny bark, (except 

 when 1 the tree is old), which in colour is a whitish 

 yellow ; but in old trees it is rough and black. The 

 tree is of a good size, of erect growth and with well 

 balanced foliage ; for in general it assumes a cone- 

 like shape as to its foliage,'' unless something inter- 

 feres. The wood is hard close strong and of a good 

 colour ; the roots are not numerous and do not run 

 deep, but they are strong and thick and inde- 

 structible. The tree grows from a root, from a piece 

 torn off, or from seed, and seeks a cold moist |X)sition ; 

 in such a position it is tenacious of life and hard to 

 kill : however it also grows on mountains. 



Of bird-cherry, elder, icillow. 

 XIII. 3 The kerasos (bird-cherry) is peculiar in 

 character ; it is of great stature, growing as much as 

 twenty-four cubits high ; and it is of very erect 

 growth ; as to thickness, it is as much as two cubits 

 in circumference at the base. The leaves are like 

 those of the medlar, but very tough and thicker,* so 

 that the tree is conspicuous by its colour from a 

 distance. The bark ^ in smoothness colour and thick- 

 ness is like that of the lime ; wherefore men make 

 their writing-cases ^ from it, as from the bark of that 

 tree. ' This bark does not grow straight nor evenly 

 all round the tree, but runs round it ^ in a spiral 



^ cj. 4. 15. 1 ; Hesych. s.i: Ktpaaos. 

 I cJ. 3. 10. 4 ; Ar. Vesp. 529. 



" ^tpix4<pvKe . . . Tr€piire<pvK6s : text as restored by Sch. and 

 Dthers, following U as closely as possible. 

 * Trepiei\7t<p* coiij. R. Const. 



243 



