Pliny's natueal histoet. 
[Book XVI. 
these fine filaments, and weave with them very handsome 
flasks/^ and various other articles. 
Some writers say that the roots of trees do not descend 
below the level to which the sun's heat is able to penetrate ; 
which, of course, depends upon the nature of the soil, whether 
it happens to be thin or dense. This, however, I look upon®"* 
as a mistake : and, in fact, we find it stated by some authors 
that a fir was transplanted, the roots of which had penetrated 
eight cubits in depth, and even then the whole of it was not 
dug up, it being torn asunder. The citrus has a root that 
goes the very deepest of all, and is of great extent ; next after 
it come the plane, the robur, and the various glandiferous 
trees. In some trees, the laurel for instance, the roots are 
more tenacious of life the nearer they are to the surface : 
hence, when the trunk withers, it is cut down, and the tree 
shoots again with redoubled vigour. Some think that the 
shorter the roots are, the more rapidly the tree decays ; a sup- 
position which is plainly contradicted by the fig, the root of 
which is among the very largest, while the tree becomes aged 
at a remarkably early period. I regard also as incorrect what 
some authors have stated, as to the roots of trees diminishing^* 
when they are old ; for I once saw an ancient oak, uprooted 
by a storm, the roots of which covered a jugerum of ground. 
CHAP. 57. TEEES WHICH HAVE GEOWN SPONTANEOUSLY EEOM THE 
GEOIJND. 
It is a not uncommon thing for trees when uprooted to re- 
ceive new strength when replanted, the earth about their roots 
forming a sort of cicatrix there. This is particularly the 
^ " Lagenas." Fee takes this to mean here vessels to hold liquids, and 
remarks that the workers in wicker cannot attain this degree of perfection 
at the present day. 
Pliny is in error in rejecting this notion. 
65 See B. xii. c. 5, and B. xiii. c. 29. What Pliny states of the fir, or 
Abies pectinata, Theophrastus relates of the ttevkt), or Abies excelsa of 
DecandoUes. There is little doubt that in either case the statement is in- 
correct. 
66 On the contrary, the roots of trees increase in size till the period of 
their death. 
67 By preventing the action of the air from drying the roots, and so kill- 
ing the tree. 
