BOOK XVI. VI. 16-V111. 19 



ground. Then they are different in mountain 

 regions and in the plains, as also they differ in sex 

 — male and female, and Ukewise in flavour : the 

 sweetest of them all is beech-mast, it being re- 

 corded by Cornehus Alexander that the people 

 in the town of Chios actually held out against a siege 

 by using it for food. It is not possible to distinguish 

 its kinds by their names, which are different in 

 different places, inasmuch as we see the hard-oak 

 and the common oak growing everywhere, but the 

 winter oak not in every region, and the fourth 

 species of the same class, called the Turkey oak, is 

 not known at all even to the greater part of Italy. 

 We will therefore distinguish the varieties by their 

 properties and natures, also using the Greek names 

 when necessary. 



\TI. The acorn of the beech resembles a kernel, Beech-mast. 

 being enclosed in a triangular shell. The leaf, 

 which is thin and one of the Hghtest that there are, 

 resembles that of the poplar ; it turns yellow very 

 quickly, and on its upper side, usually at the middle, 

 it grows a Uttle green berry with a pointed end. Mice 

 are extremely fond of the beech and consequently 

 in places where it grows these animals abound ; it 

 also fattens dormice, and is good for thrushes, too, 

 Almost all trees grow a good crop only every other 

 year, but this is especially the case with the beech. 



Vni. The trees that bear acorns in the proper sense varieties 0/ 

 of the term are the hard-oak, the common oak, the "''^* 

 winter oak, the Turkey oak, the holm-oak and the 

 cork tree. These trees carry their acorn enclosed in 

 a bristly cup that embraces more or less of it accord- 

 ing to their kinds. Their leaves with the exception 

 of the hohn-oak are heavy, fleshy and tapering, 



399 



