BOOK XVI. Liv. 125-LVI. 128 



branch. \\ ith ail trees the parts nearest the ground 

 are thicker. The fir, the larch, the palm, the 

 cj^ress, the elm and all the trees with a single trunk 

 make their growth in the direction of height. 

 Among the branching trees the charry is found 

 making timbers as much as 20 yards long and a yard 

 thick for the whole length. Some trees spread out 

 into branches at once, for example apples. 



LV. The bark of some trees is thin, as in the Varietiisof 

 lam-el and the Hme, that of others thick, as in the oak ; '"^*' 

 in some it is smooth, as in the apple and the fig, 

 but it is rough in the oak and the palm, and in all 

 trees it becomes more wrinkled in old age. With 

 certain trees, for instance the vine, it bursts of its 

 own accord, while certain others actually shed their 

 bark, for instance the apple and the arbutus. The 

 bark of the cork-tree and the poplar is fleshy, that 

 of the vine and the reed is Uke a skin ; in the cherry 

 it resembles the layers of the papyrus ; the skin of 

 the vine, the Hme and the fir consists of a number 

 of coats, but in some cases it is a single layer, for 

 instance in the fig and the reed. 



LVI. There is also a great diflterence in the roots of Vanetiesof 

 trees : those of the fig, the hard-oak and the plane a^'ZX'' 

 are abundant, those of the apple short and thin, 

 those of the fir and larch single, as these trees are 

 supported by a single root, although it throws out 

 small fibres laterally. The roots of the laurel are 

 rather thick and of uneven shape, and the same with 

 the ohve, the roots of which also form branches, but 

 those of the hard-oak are fleshy. Hard-oaks drive 

 their roots down deep, indeed the winter oak, at all 

 events if we beheve ^^irgil, goes down as deep with Oeorff.n. 

 its root as it projects upward with its trunk. The 



471 



