BOOK XVI. xxxviii. 90-92 



alder extremely thick, those of the reed and willow 

 are long and the leaves of the palm are also double ; 

 those of the pear roundcd, those of the apple 

 pointed, those of the ivy angular, those of the plane 

 divided, those of the pitch-pine and fir separated 

 hke the teeth of a comb, those of the hard oak 

 crinkly all round the edge, those of the bramble 

 have a prickly skin. In some plants the leaves sting, 

 for instance nettles ; those of the pine, pitch-pine, 

 fir, larch, cedar and the holHes are prickly ; those of 

 the oUve and holm-oak have a short stalk, those of 

 the vine a long one, those of the poplar a stalk that 

 quivers, and poplars are the only trees on which the 

 leaves rustle against one another. Again, in one 

 kind of the apple class there are small leaves even 

 on the fruit itself, shooting out from the middle of 

 the apples, sometimes even pairs of leaves ; and 

 moreover with some trees the leaves shoot round the 

 boughs, but with others also at the tip of the boughs, 

 and with the hard oak also on the trunk. Also 

 leaves grow either dense or thinly spread, and broad 

 leaves are always scantier. In the case of the myrtle 

 they are arranged regularly, with the box they 

 curve over, on fruit trees they have no arrangement, 

 on the apple and the pear several shoot from the same 

 stalk ; the leaves of the elm and the cytisus are 

 covered with branching veins. With these Cato R-R- v, 

 includes the leaves of the poplar and oak when they 

 have fallen, advising that they should be given to 

 animals before they have become quite dry, and in- 

 deed that the leaves of the fig and holm-oak and 

 also ivy-leaves should be fed to oxen ; they are also 

 given the leaves of the reed and the laurel. The 

 servlce-tree sheds its leaves all at once, but all the 



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