ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, V. i. 9-11 



These are the characteristics peculiar to the silver- 

 fir. Others it shares with the fir and the other trees 

 of this class. ^ For instance, sometimes a tree is 

 ' four-cleft/ sometimes ' two-cleft ' ; it is called ' four- 

 cleft ' when on either side of the heart-wood there 

 are two distinct and diverse lines of fissure: in that 

 case the blows of the axe follow these lines in cases 

 where the hewing is stopped short on either side of 

 the heart-wood.2 For the nature of the lines of fissure 

 compels the hewing to take this course. Silver-firs 

 or firs thus formed are said to be ' four-cleft.' And 

 these are also the fairest trees for carpentry, their 

 wood being the closest and possessmg the aigis.^ 

 Those which are ' two-cleft ' have one single line of 

 fissure on either side of the heart- wood, and the lines 

 of fissure do not correspond to each other, so that 

 the hewing also is performed by cuts which follow 

 the two lines of fissure, so as to reach the two sides 

 of the heart-wood at different angles. Now such 

 wood, they say, is the softest, but the worst for 

 carpentry, as it warps most easily. Those trees which 

 have only a single* continuous line of fissure are 

 said to be 'one-clefl,' though here too the cutting 

 is done from either side of the heart-wood : and such 

 wood has, they say, an open^ texture, and yet^ it is 

 not at all apt to warp. 



' There are also differences in the bark, by obser- 

 ^ ation of which they can tell at once what the 



" cf. 3. 9. 3. * fiiav couj. W. ; fxiay 5e PjAld. 



* navSrara conj. W. ; ^avorrfra Aid. 



® TO luXo . . . Teks conj. Sch. ; to |uAa- toCto 5f jTi^bj toj 

 Ald.H. ' Plin. 16. 195 and 196. 



425 



