386 
PLINY'S NATUKAL HI3T0RT. 
[Book XYI. 
herself, is never green. Those trees which produce a gum 
open of themselves after germination : the gum never thickens 
until after the fruit has been removed. 
CSAP. 46. TREES WHICH LOSE THEIR FRUIT OR FLOWERS MOST 
READILY. 
Young trees are unproductive^^ so long as they are growing. 
The fruits which Ml most readily before they come to maturity 
are the date, the fig, the almond, the apple, the pear, and the 
pomegranate, which last tree is also very apt to lose its blossom 
through excessive dews and hoar frosts. Por this reason it is, 
too, that the growers bend the branches of the pomegranate, lest, 
from being straight, they may receive and retain the moisture 
that is so injurious to them. The pear and the almond, even 
if it should not rain, but a south wind happen to blow or the 
weather become cloudjr, are apt to lose their blossoms, and their 
Urst fruit as well, if, after the blossom has fallen, there is a 
continuMce of such weather. Eut it is the willow that loses 
its seed the most speedily of all, long, indeed, before it is ripe ; 
hence it is that Homer has given it the epithet of " fruit- 
losing."^^ Succeeding ages, however, have given to this term 
an interpretation conformable to their own wicked practices, it 
being a well-known fact that the seed of the willow has the 
eifect of producing barrenness in females. 
In this respect, however, IN'ature has employed her usual 
foresight, bestowing but little care upon the seed of a tree 
which is produced so easily, and propagated by slips. There 
is, however, it is said, one variety of willow,^^ the seed of which 
arrives at maturity : it is found in the Isle of Crete, at the 
descent from the grotto of Jupiter : the seed is unsightly and 
ligneous, and in size about as large as a chick-pea. 
IS This must not be taken to the letter ; indeed, Fee thinks that the 
proper meaning is : — "Young trees do not produce fruit till they have 
arrived at a certain state of maturity." Trees mostly continue on the 
increase till they die. 
19 See B. xvii. c. 2. The assertion here made has not been confirmed 
by experience. 
20 i(. Frugiperda in the Greek, wXefTiKapTTov. See Homer. Od. x. 1. 510. 
It has been suggested, Pliny says, that the willow seed had this epithet 
from its effect in causing abortion ; but he does not seem to share the 
opinion. 
This cannot be a willow, Fee remarks ; indeed, Theophrastus, B, iii. 
c. p, speaks of a black poplar as growing there. 
