ii.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 53 



He adds several fabulous statements as to the 

 virtues of this tree and its leaves, especially as to 

 its being an antidote to the bite of a serpent, and 

 as to the antipathy existing between that reptile 

 and the plant. 



Possibly Pliny's second variety may be Fraxinus 

 heterophylla, a variety of the common Ash, with 

 simple undivided leaves. 



Theophrastus distinguishes the fteA/a and /3ou- 

 fjieXia, the latter growing in Macedonia, and of great 

 size. Perhaps the former may be the Ornus, the 

 latter the Fraxinus. 



Pliny notices also four varieties of Ulmus, or Elm, 

 the TrreAea of the Greeks. Two of these were 

 known, he says, to the Greeks, namely, the Moun- 

 tain Elm, which is the larger of the two, and that 

 of the plains, which is the more shrubby. To the 

 more lofty kinds Italy gives the name of Atinia. 

 It does not, he says, produce that kind of seed- 

 vessel which we call a samara, and which is charac- 

 teristic of the genus. This, however, is a mistake, 

 which Columella corrects, and arose from the smaller 

 size of the seed-vessel, which caused it to appear to 

 casual observers to be wanting. The latter author 

 regards the Atinia as synonymous to the Gallic 

 Elm, of which Pliny makes his second variety, and 

 he states that it is of larger dimensions than the 

 Italian. Upon the whole, we may set it down as 

 corresponding to our Wych Elm, or Ulmus montana. 



The Italian Elm, the third of Pliny's varieties of 



