NATURAL HISTORY OP PLINY. 
BOOK XXIV. 
THE REMEDIES DEEIVED EEOM THE FOEEST TEEES. 
CHAP. L(l.) THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES WHICH EXIST 
AMONG TEEES AND PLANTS. 
'Not even are the forests and the spots in which the aspect of 
I^ature is most rugged, destitute of their peculiar remedies ; 
for so universaUy has that divine parent of all things distributed 
her succours for the benefit of man, as to implant for him 
medicinal virtues in the trees of the desert even, while at 
every step she presents us with most wonderful illustrations of 
those antipathies and sympathies which exist in the vegetable 
world. 
Between the quercus^ and the olive ^ there exists a hatred 
so inveterate, that transplanted, either of them, to a site pre- 
viously occupied by the other, they will die.^ The quercus 
too, if planted near the walnut, will perish. There is a mortal 
feud^ existing also between the cabbage and the vine ; and the 
cabbage itself, so shunned as it is by the vine, will wither im- 
mediately if planted in the vicinity of cyclamen^ or of origanum. 
We find it asserted even, that aged trees fit to be felled, are 
cut with all the greater difficulty, and dry all the more rapidly, 
1 See B. xvi. cc. 6, 8, 33, 50. 2 gge B. xvii. c. 3. 
3 As Fee justly remarks, the greater part of these so-called sympathies 
and antipathies must be looked upon as so many fables. In the majority of 
instances, it is the habitual requirements of the tree or plant that con- 
stitute the difference ; thus, for instance, the oak or quercus requires a 
different site and temperature from that needed by the olive, and the stony 
soil adopted by the vine is but ill-suited for the cultivation of the cabbage. 
^ See B. XX. c. 36. 
5 See B. xxi. cc. 27, 38, and B, xxv. c. 67. 
VOL. Y. B 
