BOOK XVI . xxxiv. 83-xxxv. 86 



and it makes no difference if they budded earlier, 

 inasmuch as some trees are the first to bud and 

 among the last to be stripped of their leaves, for 

 instance abiionds, ash-trees, elders, whereas the 

 mulberry is the latest to bud and one of the first 

 to shed its leaves. The soil also has a great influence 

 in this matter : the leaves fall earher on dry, thin soils, 

 and earUer with an old tree, in many cases even 

 before the fruit can ripen, for instance, in the case 

 of the late fig and the winter pcar and apple, and 

 with the pomegranate the fruit is the only thing 

 visible on the parent tree. But not even with the 

 trees that ahvays keep their foHage do the same 

 leaves last on with others shooting up beneath them 

 — when this happens the old leaves wither away, 

 this occurring mostly about the solstices. 



XXXV. Each of the trees in^its o\\ti kind has a per- Vaneties of 

 manent uniformity of leaf, with the exception of the f^^^^^- 

 poplar, the ivy and the croton (which, as we have said, xv. 24. 

 is also called the cici). There are three kinds of 

 poplars, the white, the black and the one called the 

 Libyan poplar, which has a very small and very dark 

 leaf and which is very famous for the mushrooms 

 that grow on it. The white poplar has a leaf of two 

 colours, white on the upper side and green under- 

 neath. With this tree and the black poplar and the 

 croton the leaves are exactly circular when young but 

 project into angles when older ; whereas the leaves 

 of the ivy are angular at first but become round. 

 From the leaves of the white poplar springs out a 

 quantity of shiny white down, and when the foHage 

 is specially thick the trees are white all over hke 

 fleeces. Pomegranate and almond trees have reddish 

 leaves. 



443 



