BOOK XVI. Lxxvi. 203-206 



wood for their fleets ; the largest cedar is reported 

 to have been grown in Cyprus and to have been 

 felled to make a mast for a galley with rowers in 

 teams of eleven belonging to Demetrius ; it was 

 one hundred and thirty feet long and took three 

 men to span its girth. The pirates of Germany 

 voyage in boats made of a single tree hoUowed out, 

 some of which carry as many as thirty people. 



The most close-grained of all timber and conse- Varietiesof 

 quently the heaviest is judged to be ebony and box, %^e^J 

 both trees of a slender make. Neither will float in 

 water, nor will the cork-tree if its bark be removed, 

 nor the larch. Of the remainder the most close- 

 grained is the one called at Rome the lotus," and next 

 the hard oak when the white sap-wood has been 

 removed. The hard oak also has wood of a dark 

 colour, and still darker is that of the cytisus, which 

 appears to come very near to ebony, although people 

 are to be found who assert that the turpentine-trees 

 of Syria are darker. Indeed there is a celebrated 

 artificer named Thericles who used to turn goblets 

 of turpentine-tree wood, which is a highly valued 

 material ; it is the only wood that needs to be oiled, 

 and is improved by oil. Its colour can be wonderfuUy 

 counterfeited by staining walnut and wild pear wood 

 and boiUng them in a chemical preparation. AU 

 the trees that we have mentioned have hard close- 

 grained wood. Next after them comes the cornel, 

 though its wood cannot be given a shiny poUsh 

 because of its poor surftice ; but cornel wood is hardly 

 useful for anything else except the spokes of wheels 

 or in case something has to be wedged in wood or 

 fixed with bolts made of it, which are as hard as iron. 

 There are also the holm-oak, the wild and cultivated 



521 



