BOOK XVI. xviii. 42 Aix. 46 



exudes a small quantity when exposed to the action 

 of the sun. The wood, on the contrary, which in the 

 case of the fir is extremely beautiful, in the pitch- 

 pine only serves for making spUt roof-shingles and 

 tubs and a few other articles of joinery. 



XIX. The fifth kind of resinous tree has the same Larch. 

 habitat and the same appearance ; it is called the 

 larch. Its timber is far superior, not rotting with age 

 and offering a stubborn resistance to damp ; also 

 it has a reddish colour and a rather penetrating 

 scent. llesin flows from this tree in rather large 

 quantities, of the colour and stickiness of honey, 

 and never becoming hard. 



The sixthkind is the torch-pine" specially so called, Torch-pine. 

 which gives out more resin than the rest, but less, 

 and of a more hquid kind, than the pitch-pine ; and 

 it is agreeable for kindhng fires and also for torch- 

 Hght at rehgious ceremonies. These trees, at all 

 events the male variety, also produce the extremely 

 strong-smelhng hquid called by the Greeks syce.^ 

 It is a disease of the larch to turn into a torch-pine. rroperties of 



All these kinds of trees when set fire to make an ^trels!^ 

 enormous quantity of sooty smoke and suddenly 

 with an explosive crackle send out a splutter of 

 charcoal and shoot it to a considerable distance — 

 excepting the larch, which does not burn nor yet 

 make charcoal, nor waste away from the action 

 of fire any more than do stones. All these trees ^ are 

 evergreen, and are not easily distinguishable in 

 point of fohage even by experts, so closely are they 

 interrelated ; but the pitch-pine is not so tall as the 

 larch, which has a thicker and smoother bark and 

 more velvety and oiUer and thicker foUage, the leaf 

 bending more softly to the touch, whereas the fohage 



417 



