Chap. 37.] 
THE DISEASES OP TEEES. 
525 
the pitch-tree, the cedar, and the c^^ress is productive of a 
similar result ; for if it is either cut off or destroyed by fire, 
the tree will not survive : the same is the case, too, if they 
are bitten by the teeth of animals. 
Yarro^^ informs us, too, as we have already stated,^^ that the 
olive, if only licked by a she-goat, will be barren.*"^ When 
thus injured, some trees will die, while in others the fruit be-» 
comes deteriorated, the almond, for instance, the fruit of which 
changes from sweet to bitter. In other cases, again, the tree is 
improved even — such, for instance, as the pear known in Chios 
as the Phocian pear. We have already mentioned certain 
trees, also, that are all the better for having the tops removed. 
Most trees perish when the trunk is split ; but we must except 
the vine, the apple, the fig, and the pomegranate. Others, 
again, will die if only a wound is inflicted : the fig, however, 
as well as all the resinous trees, is proof against such injury. 
It is far from surprising that, when the roots of a tree are cut, 
death should be the result ; most of them perish, however, 
when, not all the roots, but only the larger ones, and those 
which are more essential to life, have been severed. 
Trees, too, will kill one another by their shade, or the 
density of their foliage, as also by the withdrawal of nourish- 
ment. Ivy, 2^ by clinging to a tree, will strangle it. The 
mistletoe, too, is far from beneficial, and the cytisus is killed 
by the plant to which the Greeks have given the name of 
halimon.^* It is the nature of some plants not to kill, but to 
injure, by the odour they emit, or by the admixture of their 
juices ; such is the influence exercised by the radish and the 
laurel upon the vine.^^ For the vine may reasonably be looked 
15 De Re Rust. B. i. c. 2. in B. viii. c. 76, and B. xv. c. 8. 
This statement is fabulous. Goats are apt to injure trees by biting 
tlie buds and young shoots. Fabulous as it is, however, Fee remarks that 
it still obtains credit among the peasantry in France. 
1^ This fabulous story is taken from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. v. c. 25. 
19 Also from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B.iv. cc. 19-20, and De Causis, 
B. V. c. 22. It is just possible that on some of the branches being torn 
off bv an animal, the tree may have grown with increased vigour. 
20 "in B. xiii. c. 9, and in c. 30 of this Book. 21 gee B. xvi. c. 47. • 
2- It must be remembered that ivy is not a parasite, and that it has no 
suckers to absorb the nutriment of another tree. 
23 See B. xyi, c. 62. 
2* C. Bauhin gives this name to several species of Atriplex. Lacuna 
was of opinion that the Halimon of Dioscorides was the same as the 
Yiburnum. 25 ^ superstitious belief only, as Fee remarks. 
