Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



told by Vitruvius, who says that a basket covered 

 with a tile happened to be placed upon a root of 

 acanthus, and when the plant shot up in spring the 

 stalks came up round the basket till they were caused 

 by the tile to bend outward. The architect Calli- 

 machus, passing by, was struck by the effect, and, 

 having to make some pillars at Corinth, imitated it 

 in the capitals. The story, probably a fiction, may 

 have been known to Virgil, but is not satisfactory as 

 an explanation of our passage. It is better to refer 

 Virgil's phrase to the gum arable, and to suppose 

 that in favourable spots in Italy, such as the 

 Corycian's garden at Taranto, the plant could be 

 grown in the open air with such protection in winter 

 as in the north was given to myrtles. With us it is 

 a greenhouse tree. 



The robe which Leda made for Helen had a 

 woven border representing our plant. 



Flower, spring. 

 Italian name, Acacia. 



Acer. 



'trabibus . . . acernis' {Ae. ii. 112; ix. 87). 

 ' solio . . . acerno ' {Ae. viii. 178). 



The maple (Acer campestre), both in Greece and 

 in Italy mainly a tree of the hills, disappears in 

 southern Italy, but is found again on the mountains 

 of Sicily. Virgil gives it, together with pine and 

 spruce, as supplying the timber for the wooden 

 horse, and he doubtless thought of them as trees of 

 Mount Ida. In our second passage 'trabibus' is used 



10 



