BOOK XVI. Lxxi. 179-LXX11. 182 



different way from the giant fennel, as at all events 

 the elder has more vvood ; a shepherd beheves that 

 a horn or trumpet of elder wood will be louder if the 

 wood was cut in some place where the elder bush is 

 out of hearing of the crowing of cocks. Brambles 

 bear blackberries, and one variety, which is callcd in 

 Greek the dog-bramble, a flower Uke a rose. A 

 third kind the Greeks call the Ida bramble, from the 

 place where it grows, a more slender variety than 

 the others, with smaller and less hooked thorns ; 

 its blossom is used to make an ointment for sore eyes, 

 and also, dipped in honey, for St. Anthony's fire," 

 and also soaked in water it makes a draught to cure 

 stomach troubles. Elder-trees have small black 

 berries with a sticky juice, chiefly used for a hair 

 dye ; these also are boiled in water and eaten. 



LXXII. There is also a juice in the body of trees, sapin trees. 

 which must be looked upon as their blood. It is 

 not the same in all trees — in figs it is a milky 

 substance, which has the property of curdhng milk 

 so as to produce cheese, in cherries it is gummy, 

 in ehns slimy, sticky and fat, in apples, vines and 

 pears watery. The stickier this sap is, the longer 

 the trees Uve. And in general the bodies of trees, physioio^cai 

 as of other Uving things, have in them skin, blood, 'l^J^^^^^°^ 

 flesh, sinews, veins, bones and marrow. The bark 

 serves for a skin ; it is a remarkable fact as regards 

 the bark on a mulberry that when doctors require 

 its juice they strike it with a stone two hours after 

 sunrise in spring and the juice trickles out, but if 

 a deeper wound is made the bark seems to be dry. 

 Next to the bark most trees have layers of fatty 

 substance, caUed from its white colour albumum ; this 

 is soft and the worst part of the wood, rotting easily 



VOL. IV. K 5^5 



