BOOK XVI. xc. 241-xai. 244 



the hardiest trees to live are olives, seeing that it is 

 generally agreed among the authorities that they last 

 200 years. 



XCI. On a hill named Come in the territory of Tus- Ceiebrated 

 cuhim, near the city, there is a grove named Come xuiniium. 

 which has been held in reverence from early times 

 by the district of Latium as sacred to Diana ; it consists 

 of a beech coppice the foliage of which has the appear- 

 ance of having been trimmcd by art. This grove con- 

 tains one outstanding tree which in our generation 

 excited the afFection of the orator Passienus Crispus, 

 who had twice been consul and who subsequcntly 

 became still more distinguished by marrying Agrip- 

 pina and becoming the stepfather of Nero ; Crispus 

 used regularly not merely to He beneath the tree and 

 to pour wine over it, but to kiss and embrace it. Closc 

 to this grove is a holm-oak which is also famous, as 

 measuring thirty-four fect round the trunk, and 

 sending out what look Hke ten separate trees of 

 remarkable size and forming a w^ood of itself. 



XCII. It is a well-known fact that trees are killed ParasUic 

 by ivy. Some people believe that a similar property noxi^ms to 

 noxious to trees, though operating more slowly, is also "'^^*' 

 contained in mistletoe — for this plant also is recognised 

 as by no means among the least remarkable on 

 account of other properties beside its berries. 

 For some varieties of plants cannot grow in the 

 earth, and take root in trees, because they have no 

 abode of their own and consequently hve in that of 

 others : instances of this are mistletoe and the plant in 

 Syria called cadytas, which twines itself round not 

 only trees but even teasels, and Hkewise in the dis- 

 trict about Tempe in Thessaly the plant caHed 

 polypodium, and also the doHchos and the serpyllum. 



545 



