BOOK XII. V. ii-vii. 14 



both in CTreek and Latin, as never shedding its leaves ; 

 and a typical Greek story about it has come down 

 from early times, to the effect that underneath it 

 Jupiter lay with Europa — ^just as if really there were 

 not another tree of the same species in the island of 

 Cyprus ! Shps from this tree, however, planted first in 

 Crete itself — so eager is human nature for a novelty — 

 reproduced the defect 1 ^ for defect it was, because 

 the plane has no greater recommendation than its 

 property of warding off the sun in summer and ad- 

 mitting it in winter. During the principate of 

 Claudius an extremely wealthy Thessahan eunuch, 

 who was a freedman of Marcclkis Aeserninus but had 

 for the sake of obtaining power got himself enrolled 

 among the freedmen of the emperor, imported this 

 variety of plane-tree from Crete into Italy and 

 introduced it at his country estate near Rome — so 

 that he deserves to be called another Dionysius ! 

 And these monstrosities from abroad still last on in 

 Italy also, in addition, that is, to those which Italy 

 has devised for herself. 



VI. For there is also the variety called the ground- Th^dwarf- 

 plane, stunted in height — since we have discovered ^ "^' 

 the art of producing abortions even in trees, and 

 consequently even in the tree class we shall have 

 to speak of the unhappy subject of dwarfs. The 

 ground-plane is produced by a method of planting 

 and of lopping. CHpped arbours were invented within 

 the last 80 years by a member of the Equestrian order 

 named Gaius Matius, a friend of his late Majesty 

 Augustus. 



\TI. The cherry and the peach and all the trees 

 with Greek or foreign names are also exotic ; but 

 those among them which have been naturaHzed here 



II 



