Chap. 74.] 
THE rELLTKG OE TEEES. 
415 
sap : after the slimy^^ pith has been carefully removed, it has 
a similar degree of hardness to the bones in the bodies of 
animals. It is said, too, that in Greece the inner part of the 
elder is remarkably firm : indeed, those whose business it is to 
make hunting spears, prefer this material to all others, it being 
a wood composed wholly of skin and bone. 
CHAP. 74. THE TELLITfG OE TEEES. 
The proper time for felling trees that are wanted for 
barking, the round, tapering trees, for instance, that are em- 
ployed in temples and for other purposes, is at the period of 
germination : for at other times it is quite impossible to 
detach the bark from the rotten w^ood that adheres to it, while 
the wood itself assumes a blackish hue. Squared logs, and 
wood from which the bark has been lopped, are generally cut 
in the period that intervenes between the winter solstice and 
the prevalence of the west winds ; or else, if it is necessary 
to anticipate that period, at the setting of Arcturus and 
before that of the Lyre, the very earliest period being the 
summer solstice : the days of these respective constellations 
will be mentioned in the appropriate place. 
In general it is looked upon as quite sufficient to use all 
due precaution that a tree is not rough-hewn before it has 
borne its yearly crop. The robur, if cut in spring, is subject 
to the attacks of wood-worm, but if cut in winter, will neither 
rot nor warp : otherwise it is very liable to bend and become 
awry, as well as to crack ; the same is the case, too, with the 
cork-tree, even if cut down at the proper time. The state of 
the moon,^^ too, is of infinite importance, and it is generally 
recommended that trees should be cut only between the twen- 
tieth and the thirtieth days of the month. It is generally 
agreed, however, by all, that it is the very best time for 
felling timber, when the moon is in conjunction with the 
sun, a day which is called by some persons the interlu- 
nium, and by others the moon's silence. At all events, it was 
" Limo :" the alburnum previously mentioned. 
' 92 This practice was formerly forbidden by the forest laws of France. 
9^ In B. xviii. 
3* Pliny borrows this superstition from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. 
B. vi. c. 1. 
