Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



hence it figures both as * levis ' (Ge. i. 173), and as 

 ' levis ' {Ge. ii. 449). It is well fitted for carving, 

 and was much used by Grinling Gibbons. 



Bass made of the inner bark, ' philyra,' was used 

 for tying flowers into chaplets and garlands. 



Flower, June and July. 



Italian name, Tiglio. 



Tribulus : see Lappa. 



Tinus. 



Philargyrius tells us that in the phrase which ap- 

 pears in our manuscripts as ' tiliae atque uberrima 

 pinus ' (Ge. iv. 141) Virgil left a choice of two read- 

 ings, * pinus ' and ' tinus.' The latter is our garden 

 laurustinus (Viburnum tinus), characteristically 

 called by Conington ' a kind of wild bay-tree,' 

 though the bay is wild in Italy, and the laurustinus 

 is nowise akin to it. The Corycian grew it for its 

 beauty only, for at Taranto the flowers would be 

 over before his bees were much about. 



In Ge. iv. 112, * ipse thymum pinosque ferens 

 de montibus altis,' the Palatine manuscript gives 

 * tinos ' for ' pinos.' This is certainly a false read- 

 ing. The laurustinus is eminently a tree of the 

 coastland, and flowers in the dead time of the year. 

 Even in Mid-Sussex it suffers some damage in a hard 

 frost, and it would never be so foolish as of its own 

 accord to face a winter in the Apennines. 

 Flower, January and February. 

 Italian name, Lauro-tino. 

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