BOOK XVI. XI. 3o-.\iii. s^ 



lasting on in thc winter after tlie leaves have fallen. 

 It contains a kernel resembUng the kernel of pine- 

 cones ; tliis grows in winter and opens out in spring. 

 When the leaves have begun to grow, the whole 

 ball falls off. Such is the multiphcity of products in 

 addition to the acorn that are borne by hard-oaks ; 

 but they also produce edible fungi and hog-mush- 

 rooms, the most recently discovered stimulants of 

 tlie appetite, which grow round their roots ; those 

 of the common oak are the most esteemed, but 

 those of the hard-oak and cypress and pine are 

 harmful. Hard-oaks also produce mistletoe, and 

 honey as well according to Hesiod, and it is an ac- w.d. 2Z2. 

 cepted fact that honey-dew faUing from the sky," as 

 we said, deposits itself on the leaves of no other tree ^i- ^o. 

 in preference to the hard-oak ; and it is well known 

 that hard-oak wood when burnt produces a nitrous asii. 



XII. Nevertheless the holm-oak challenges all these ^^ kermes- 

 products of the hard-oak on the score of its scarlet 



alone. This is a grain, and looks at first hke a rough- 

 ness on a shrub, which is the small pointed-leaf holm- 

 oak. The grain is called scolecium, ' htte worm '.^ It 

 furnishes the poor in Spain with the means of paying 

 one out of every two instalments of their tribute. 

 We have stated the use of this grain and the mode ix. I40f. 

 of preparing it when speaking of pui^ple dye. It 

 occurs also in Galatia, Africa, Pisidia and Cihcia, and 

 the worst kind in Sardinia. 



XIII. In the GalHc provinces chiefly the acorn- ^""^«^ <>" 

 bearing trees produce agaric,*^ which is a white fungus 



with a strong odour, and which makes a powerful anti- 

 dote ; it grows on the tops of trees, and is phosphor- 

 escent at night ; this is its distinguishing mark, by 

 which it can be gathered in the dark. Of the 



voL. IV. o 409 



