Chap. 45.] 
TREES WHICH BEAE KO FEUIT. 
385 
CHAP. 44. TREES WHICH BEAR THE WHOLE YEAR. TREES WHICH 
HAVE OliT THEM THE FRUIT OF THREE YEARS. 
The citron- tree, ^ the juniper, and the holm-oak are looked 
upon as having fruit on them the whole year through, and 
upon these trees we see the new fruit hanging along with that 
of the preceding year. The pine, however, is the most re- 
markable of them all ; for it has upon it at the same moment 
the fruit that is hastening to maturity, the fruit that is to 
come to maturity in the ensuing year, and the fruit that is to 
ripen the next year hut one.^° Indeed, there is no tree that 
is more eager to develope its resources ; for in the same month 
in which a nut is plucked from it, another will ripen in the 
same place ; the arrangement being such, that there is no 
month in which the nuts of this tree are not ripening. Those 
nuts which split while still upon the tree, are known by the 
name of azanias they are productive of injury to the others, 
if not removed. 
CHAP. 45. TREES WHICH BEAR NO FRUIT: TREES LOOKED UPON 
AS ILL-OMENED. 
The only ones among all the trees that bear nothing what- 
ever, not so much as any seed even, are the tamarisk,^ which 
is used only for making brooms, the poplar, the alder, the 
Atinian elm,^^ and the alaternus,^^ which has a leaf between 
that of the holm-oak and the olive. Those trees are regarded 
as sinister, and are considered inauspicious, which are never 
propagated from seed, and bear no fruit. Cremutius informs 
us, that this tree, being the one upon which Phyllis hanged 
9 See B. xii. c. 7. 
This supposed marvel merely arises from the fact that the fruit has a 
strong ligneous stalk, which almost precludes the possibility of its drop- 
ping off. This is the case, too, not only with the pine, but with numerous 
other trees as well. 
11 Dried" nuts. , 12 See B. xxiv. c. 41. 
13 But in B. xxiv. c. 32, he speaks of the fruit of the black poplar as an 
antidote for epilepsy. In fact, he is quite in • error in denying a seed to 
any of these trees. 1* See c. 29 of this Book. 
1^ The Bhamnus alaternus of Linnaeus, the Pbylica elatior of C. Bauhin. 
In reaUty, it bears a small black berry, of purgative qualities. 
16 " Infelic.es," " unhappy " rather. 
^'^ Daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace, who hanged herself on account 
of the supposed inconstancy of her lover, Demophoon. See Ovid, lieroid. 2. 
VOL. Ill C C 
