378 
PLINY's natural history. [Book XVI. 
thorn in place of a leaf. The leaf of the cypress and the tama- 
risks^ is fleshy, and that of the alder is remarkable for its 
thickness.^^ In the reed, the willow, and the palm,®^ the leaf 
is long, and in the latter tree it is double as well : that of the 
pear is rounded, and it is pointed in the apple. In the ivy 
the leaf is angular, and in the plane divided.^* In the pitch- 
tree^^ and the fir the leaf is indented like the teeth of a comb ; 
while in the robur it is sinuous on the whole of the outer 
margin : in the bramble it has a spiny surface. In some 
plants the leaf has the property of stinging, the nettle for in- 
stance ; while in the pine,^ the pitch-tree, the fir, the larch, 
the cedar, and the holl}^ it is prickly. In the olive and the 
holm-oak it has a short stalk, in the vine a long one : in the 
poplar the stalk of the leaf is always quivering, and the leaves 
of this tree are the only ones that make a crackling noise^** 
when coming in contact with another. 
In one variety of the apple- tree''*^ we find a small leaf pro- 
truding from the very middle of the fruit, sometimes, indeed, 
a couple of them. Then, again, in some trees the leaves are 
arranged all round the branches, and in others at the extremities 
of them, while in the robur they are found upon the trunk 
itself. They are sometimes thick and close, and at others 
thinly scattered, which is more particularly the case where the 
leaf is large and broad. In the myrtle'^ they are symmetrically 
of the holm-oak which he has previously called " aquifoiia," apparently 
confounding it with the holly. See c. 8 of this Book. 
60 See B. xiii. c. 37. 
61 This must he understood of the young leaf of the alder, which has a 
sort of thick gummy varnish on it. 
62 B. xiii. c. 7. 
63 B. XV. c. 15. Pliny is not correct here ; the leaf of the pear is oval 
or lanceolated, while that of the apple is oval and somewhat angular, though 
not exactly mucronata," or sharply pointed. 
61 Not exactly "divided," but strongly lobed. 
65 If this is the case, the pitch-tree can hardly be identical with the 
false fir, the Abies excelsa of DecandoUes. See c. 18 of this Book, and 
the Note. 
66 This passage would be apt to mislead, did we not know that the leaves 
of the coniferous trees here mentioned are not prickly, in the same sense 
as those of the holly, which are armed with very formidable weapons. 
67 More particularly in the Populus tremula, the " quivering" poplar. 
68 Crepitantia. 
69 See B. XV. c. 15. Not a species, but an accidental monstrosity. 
See B. XV. c. 37, where he speaks of the Hexastich myrtle. 
