BOOK XVII. x.wvii. 2I8-22I 

 Some diseases are common to all trees and some Miiicties 



,. , •ii-i /^' , 11 comman to all 



are peculiar to special kinds. Common to all are trees. 

 damago by worms and star-bli<;ht and pain in 

 the limbs, resulting in debiUty of the various parts 

 — maladies sharing even their names with those of 

 mankind : we certainly speak of trees boing muti- 

 lated and having the eyes of tlieir buds burnt out 

 and many misfortunes of a kind rcsembling our own. 

 Accordingly they suffer both from hunger and from 

 indigestion, maladies due to the amount of moisture 

 in thcm, and some even from obesity, for instance all 

 which produce resin owing to excessive fatness are 

 converted into torch-wood, and when the roots also 

 have begun to get fat, dic Hke animals from excessive 

 adipose deposit ; and sometimcs also they die of 

 epidemics prevaiUng in eertain classes of tree, just as 

 among mankind diseases somctimes attack the slaves 

 and sometimes the urban or the rural lower classes. 



Particular trees are attacked by worm in a greater Damaqehy 

 or smaller degree, but nearly all are Hable, and birds insecis'.' 

 detect worm-eaten wood by the hoUow sound wlien 

 they tap the bark. Nowadays indced even this has 

 begun to be classed as a luxury, and specially large 

 wood-maggots found in oakwood — the name for these 

 is cosses — figure in the menu as a special deHcacy, 

 and actually even these creatures are fed with flour 

 to fatten them for the table. The trces most Hable 

 to be worm-eaten are pears, apples, and figs ; those 

 that have a bittcr taste and a scent are less Hable. 

 Of the maggots found in fig-trecs sonie brecd in the 

 trees themsclves, but othcrs are produccd by the 

 insect called in Greek the horned insect ; all of 

 thcm howcvcr assume the shapc nf that insect, and 

 emit a Httlc buzzing sound. Also the scrvice-ti'ee is 



153 



