BOOK XIII. XXX. 96-99 



XXX. The outstanding merit of citrus-wood tables is 

 to have wavy marks foiTning a vein or else httle spirals. 

 The former marking produces a longish pattern and 

 is consequently called tiger-wood, while the latter 

 gives a twisted pattern and consequently slabs of 

 that sort are called panther-tables. Also some have 

 wavy crinkled markings, which are more esteemed if 

 they resemble the eyes in a peacock's tail. Besides 

 the kinds previously mentioned, great esteem, 

 though coming after these, belongs to those veined 

 with a thick cluster of what look like grains, 

 these slabs being consequently called parsley-wood, 

 from the resemblance. But the highest value of all 

 resides in the colour of the wood, the colour of meed 

 being the most favoured, shining with the wine that 

 is proper to it.« The next point is size : now-a- 

 days tables made of whole trunks are admired, or 

 several trunks morticed together in one table. 



The faults in a table are woodiness — that is the 

 name given to a dull patternless uniformity in the 

 timber, or uniformity arranged like the leaves of a 

 plane-tree, and also to a grain resembhng the veining 

 or colouring of the holm-oak — and to flaws or hairy 

 hnes resembling flaws, a fault to which heat and wind 

 have rendered the timber particularly liable ; next 

 comes a colour running across the wood in a black 

 streak hke a lamprey and marked with in-egular 

 raven-scratchings as on a poppy and in general rather 

 approaching black, or blotches of various colours. 

 The natives bury the timber in the ground while still 

 green, giving it a coat of wax ; but carpenters lay 

 it in heaps of corn for periods of a week with 

 intervals of a week between, and it is surprising 

 how much its weight is reduced by this process. 



157 



