BOOK XVI. XIX. 49 XXI. 52 



specics, with the exccption of the larch, there hang 

 nut-like growths resembhng catkins, packed togethcr 

 Hke scalcs. Thosc of the male fir have kerncls in 

 their tips, thousch this is not the case with the female 

 fir ; but the nuts of the pitch-pine have kcrncls filhng 

 thc whole of the catkins, which are smaller and 

 narro^vcr, the kernels being vcry small and black, 

 owing to which the Greek name for the pitch-pine 

 is a word meaning * louse-tree.' Also in the pitch- 

 pine the nut-growths are more closely packed in the 

 male trees and less moist with resin. 



XX. Morcover, not to pass over any variety, re- Theyew 

 sembUng these trees in appearance is the yew, hardly 

 green at all in colour and slender in form, with a 

 gloomy, terrifying appearance ; it has no sap, and is 



the only tree of all the class that bears berries. The 

 friiit of the male yew is harmful — in fact its berries, 

 particularly in Spain, contain a deadly poison ; even 

 wine-flasks for travellers made of its wood in Gaul 

 are known to have caused death. Sextius says that 

 the Greek name for this tree is milax, and that in 

 Arcadia its poison is so active that people who go to 

 sleep or picnic beneath a yew-tree die. Some people 

 also say that this is why poisons were called ' taxic,' 

 which we now pronounce ' toxic '," meaning ' used for 

 poisoning arrows.' I find it stated that a yew becomes 

 harmless if a copper nail is driven into the actual tree. 



XXI. In Europe tar is obtained from the torch- 



pine by heating it, and is used for coating ships' tackle and uses oj 

 and many other purposes. The wood of the tree is '«''• 

 chopi^ed up and put into ovens and heated by means 

 of a hre packed all round outside. The first Hquid that 

 exudes flows hke water down a pipe ; in Syria this is 

 callcd ' ccdar-juicc,' and it is so strong that in Egypt 



42T 



