BOOK XIII. VIII. 36-ix. 39 



and not into a tree ; consequently the growers plant 

 cuttings, and transplant the young trees when a year 

 old and again when two years old, for they like a 

 change of position — this is done in the spring in 

 other countries, but in Assyria about the rising of the 

 Dog-star. Also there they do not touch the young 

 trees with a knife, but tie back the leafy shoots to make 

 them grow upward to a considerable height. When 

 the trees are strong they prune them down so as 

 to make them grow thicker, leaving the stumps of 

 the branches six inches long ; to lop them at any 

 other point kills the mother tree. We have said 528. 

 above that palms Uke a salt soil ; consequently in 

 places where the ground is not of that nature they 

 sprinkle salt on it, not at the roots of the trees but a 

 httle farther ofF. Some palms in Syria and Egypt 

 divide into two trunks, and in Crete even into three, 

 and some even into five. These begin to bear in three 

 years, but the palms in Cyprus, Syria and Egypt bear 

 when four years old, and others when five, the tree 

 being then the height of a man ; as long as the trees 

 are young the fruit has no woody part inside,^ and 

 consequently they are called ' eunuchs.' 



IX. Palm-trees are of many varieties. The harren rarietiesof 

 kinds are used in Assyria and throughout the whole of p'^'"'- 

 Persia for building timber and for the more luxuri- 

 ous articles of manufacture. Also there are forests of 

 palms grown for timber which when felled send out 

 shoots again from the root ; the pith of these at the 

 top, which is called their ' brain,' has a sweet taste, 

 and after it has been removed the trees continue to 

 hve, which is not the case with other sorts of palm. 

 The name of this tree is the chamaerops, and it has an 

 exceptionally broad soft leaf which is extremely 



VOL. TV. T7 '2^ 



