Chap. 73.] THE VEINS AND EIBEES OF TREES. 
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and in the robur even will very easily rot, being particularly 
liable to wood- worm, for which reason it is invariably removed. 
Beneath, this fat lies the flesh^''^ of the tree, and then under 
that, its bo.nes, or, in other words, the choicest part of the wood. 
Those trees which have a dry wood, the olive, for instance, 
hear fruit every other year only : this is more the case with 
them than with those the wood of which is of a fleshy nature, 
such as the cherry, for instance. It is not all trees, too, that 
have this fat and flesh in any abundance, the same as we find 
to be the case among the more active animals. The box, the 
cornel, and the olive have none at all, nor yet any marrow, and 
a very small proportion, too, of blood. In the same way, too, 
the service-tree has no bones, and the elder no flesh, while 
both of them have marrow in the greatest abundance. Eeeds, 
too, have hardly any flesh. 
CHAP. 73. THE VEINS AND FIBllES OF TEEES. 
In the flesh of some trees we find both fibres"^^ and veins : 
they are easily distinguished. The veins"^^ are larger, while 
the fibres are of whiter material, and are to be found in those 
woods more particularly which are easily split. Hence it is that 
if the ear is applied to the extremity of a beam of wood, how- 
ever long, a tap with a graver^*^ even upon the other end may 
be distinctly heard, the sound penetrating by the passages 
which run straight through it : by these means it is that we 
ascertain whether timber runs awry, or is interrupted by knots. 
The tuberosities which we find on trees resemble the kernels^^ 
that are formed in flesh : they contain neither veins nor fibres, 
but only a kind of tough, solid flesh, rolled up in a sort of 
ball : it is these tuberosities that are the most esteemed parts®^ 
in the citrus and the maple. As to the other kinds of wood 
'^'^,He means the outer ligneous layers of the wood. They differ only 
in their relative hardness. 
"^^ " Pulpse.'' The ligneous fibres which form the tissue of the bark. 
79 a Venae." By this term he probably means the nutritive vessels and the 
ligneous fibres united. It was anciently the general belief that the fibres 
acted their part in the nutriment of the tree. 
^'^'^ *' Graphium," Properly a stylus or iron pen, 
" Glandia." This analogy, Fee remarks, does not hold good. 
S3 See B. xiii. c. 29, and c. 27 of this Book. 
