PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



e glandiferis sola quae vocatur aegilops fert pannos 

 arentes, muscoso villo canos, non in cortice modo 

 verum et e ramis dependentes cubitali magnitudine, 

 odoratos, uti diximus inter unguenta. 



34 Suberi minima arbor, glans pessima et rara, cortex 

 tantum in fructu, praecrassus ac renascens atque 

 etiam in denos pedes undique explanatus : usus eius 

 ancoralibus maxime navium piscantiumque tragulis 

 et cadorum obturamentis, praeterea in hiberno 

 feminarum calceatu. quamobrem non infacete Graeci 

 corticis arborem appellant. sunt et qui feminam 

 ilicem vocent atque, ubi non nascitur ilex, pro ea 

 subere utantur in carpentariis praecipue fabricis, ut 

 circa Elim et Lacedaemonem. nec in Italia tota 

 nascitur aut in Gallia omnino. 



35 XIV. Cortexetfagi,tiliae,abietis,^piceae,inmagno 

 usu agrestium. vasa eo corbesque ac patentiora 

 quaedam messibus convehendis vindemiisque faciunt 

 atque proiecta ^ tuguriorum. scribit in recenti ad 

 duces explorator incidens Utteras "f a sucof ; ^ nec 

 non et in quodam usu sacrorum rehgiosus est fagi 

 cortex, sed non durat arbor ipsa. 



' Sic Warmington : fagis, tiliae, abieti. 



2 Hardouin : protecta. 



^ incisas literas tegente suco Dalec. 



" Some kind of lichen is referred to. 



* The reference is to cork floats used either to carry the end 

 of a mooring-cable left attached to an anchor or a stone on the 

 bottom of a harbour or roadstead, or to carry the top edge of 

 a fishing-net held taut by weights along its bottom edge. 



' The Greek name for the Quercus Suber was ^eAAds', a word 

 aiso used for the cork floats on a net ; for bark they used ^Aoid?. 



** The words a suco have evaded plausible explanation or 

 emendatinn. Tho general sense is that a message was scratched 

 on a strip of bark freshly peeled ofl" a tree, and that owing to 



410 



