422 
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOEY. 
[Book XVI. 
or to that of the laurel for rubbing with. A species of wild 
vine,^^ too — not the same as the labrusca — which climbs up 
other trees like the ivy, is highly approved of. The coldest^*^ 
woods of all are those of the aquatic trees ; but they are the 
most flexible also, and for that reason the best adapted for the 
construction of bucklers. On an incision being made in them, 
they will contract immediately, and so close up their wounds, 
at the same time rendering it more difficult for the iron to pe- 
netrate : in the number of these woods are the f).g, the willow, 
the lime, the birch, the elder, and both varieties of the poplar. 
The lightest of all these woods, and consequently the most 
useful, are the fig and the willow. They are all of them em- 
ployed, however, in the manufacture of baskets and other 
utensils of wicker-work ; while, at the same time, they pos- 
sess a degree of whiteness and hardness which render them 
very well adapted for carving. The plane has considerable 
ilexibility, but it is moist and slimy like the alder. The elm, 
too, the ash, the mulberry, and the cherry, are flexible, but of 
a drier nature ; the wood, however, is more weighty. The 
elm is the best of all for retaining its natural toughness, and 
hence it is more particularly employed for socket beams for 
hinges, and cases for the pannelling of doors, being proof 
against warping. It is requisite, however, that the beam to 
receive the hinge should be inverted when set up, the top of 
the tree answering to the lower hinge, the root to the upper. 
The wood of the palm and the cork-tree is soft, while that of 
the apple and the pear is compact. Such, however, is not the 
case with the maple, its wood being brittle, as, in fact, all 
veined woods are. In every kind of tree, the varieties in the 
wood are still more augmented by the wild trees and the males. 
The wood, too, of the barren tree is more solid than that of the 
fruit-bearing ones, except in those species in which the male 
trees bear fruit, the cypress and the cornel, for instance. 
CHAP. 78. TllEES WHICH AEE PEOOF AGAINST DECAY : TREES 
WHICH NEVER SPLIT. 
The following trees are proof against decay and the other- 
29 See B. xxiv. c. 49. The Viticella, belonging to the genus clematis. 
This unfounded notion is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. v. c. 4. 
31 In the modern botanical sense of the word, the male trees do not 
bear at all. 
