Cheap. 30.] NATURES Or VAEIOUS TEEES. 371 
the yoke- elm. On the Apennines there is also found a shrub 
known as the cotinus,"^^ famous for imparting to cloth a 
purple colour like that of the murex. The fir, the robur, the 
chesnut, the lime, the holm-oak, and the cornel will grow 
equally well on mountain or in valley; while the maple, the 
ash, the service, the linden, and the cherry, more particularly 
prefer a watery spot on the slope of a hilly declivity. It is 
not often that we see the plum, the pomegranate, the olive, 
the walnut, the mulberry, or the elder, growing on an elevated 
site : the cornel, too, the hazel, the quercus, the wild ash, the 
maple, the ash, the beech, and the yoke-elm, descend to the 
plains; while the elm, the apple, the pear, the laurel, the 
myrtle, the blood-red shrub, the holm-oak, and the brooms 
that are employed in dyeing cloths, all of them aspire to a 
more elevated locality. 
The sorb,^^ and even still more the birch, are fond of a 
cold site ; this last is a native of Gaul, of singular whiteness 
and slender shape, and rendered terrible as forming the fasces 
of the magistracy. Erom its flexibility it is employed also in 
making circlets and the ribs of panniers. In Gaul,^^ too, they 
extract a bitumen from it by boiling. To a cold site, also, 
belongs the thorn, which affords the most auspicious torches '"^^ 
On the contrary, the yoke-elm, or horn-beam, grows almost exclusively 
on the plains ; and the same with the cornel and the poplar. 
^6 The Ehus cotinus of Linnaeus, the fustic. See 13. xiii, c. 41. This, 
however, imparts a yellow colour, while Pliny speaks of a purple. It has 
heen asserted, however, that the roots of it produce a fine red. There is 
no tree in Europe that produces a purple for dyeing. 
The maple, the ash, and the service-tree, are as often found in the 
plains as on the hills. 
18 See c. 43f and B. xxiv. c. 43. The Cornus sanguinea of Linnaeus, 
the blood-red cornel ; the branches of which are red in the winter, and the 
fruit filled with a blood-red juice. This is probably the same shrub as the 
male cornel, mentioned further on by Pliny. 
1^ The Genista tinctoria of Linnseus, or " dyers' " broom. 
20 Or " service-tree," the Sorbus domestica of Linnaeus. It thrives just 
as well in a warm locality as a cold one. 
21 The Betula alba of Linufeus. It was an object of terror not only 
in the hands of the Homan lictor, but in those of the pedagogue also, 
and is still to some extent. Hence it was formerly nicknamed " Arbor 
sapientiee," the " tree of wisdom." 
22 This is no longer done in France, but it is in Russia, where they ex- 
tract from it an empyreumatic oil, which is used in preparing Russia leather, 
and which Imparts to it its agreeable smell. 
23 Boys, both of whose parents were surviving, used to carry before the 
B B 2 
