Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES., CHAP. 30. (18.)—THE, NATURES OF THE VARIOUS TREES ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCALITIES: THE MOUNTAIN TREES, AND THE TREES OF THE PLAIN.

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CHAP. 30. (18.)—THE, NATURES OF THE VARIOUS TREES ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCALITIES: THE MOUNTAIN TREES, AND THE TREES OF THE PLAIN.

Having now made mention of the more remarkable trees, it remains for me to state some general facts connected with them all. The cedar, the larch, the torch-tree, and the other resinous trees prefer mountainous localities:¹ the same is the case also with the aquifolia, the box, the holm-oak, the juniper, the terebinth, the poplar, the wild mountain-ash, and the yoke-elm.² On the Apennines there is also found a shrub known as the "cotinus,"³ famous for imparting to cloth a purple colour like that of the murex. The fir, the robur, the chesnut, the lime, the holm-oak, and the cornel will grow equally well on mountain or in valley; while the maple,⁴ the ash, the service, the linden, and the cherry, more particularly prefer a watery spot on the slope of a hilly declivity. It is not often that we see the plum, the pomegranate, the olive, the walnut, the mulberry, or the elder, growing on an elevated site: the cornel, too, the hazel, the quercus, the wild ash, the maple, the ash, the beech, and the yoke-elm, descend to the plains; while the elm, the apple, the pear, the laurel, the myrtle, the blood-red⁵ shrub, the holm-oak, and the brooms⁶ that are employed in dyeing cloths, all of them aspire to a more elevated locality.

The sorb,⁷ and even still more the birch⁸ are fond of a cold site; this last is a native of Gaul, of singular whiteness and slender shape, and rendered terrible as forming the fasces of the magistracy. From its flexibility it is employed also in making circlets and the ribs of panniers. In Gaul,⁹ too, they extract a bitumen from it by boiling. To a cold site, also, belongs the thorn, which affords the most auspicious torches¹⁰ of all for the nuptial ceremony; from the circumstance, as Massurius assures us, that the shepherds, on the occasion of the rape of the Sabine women, made their torches of the wood of this tree: at the present day, however, the woods of the yoke-elm and the hazel are more generally employed for this purpose.

1 The Pinus maritima of Linnæus, which produces the greater part of the resins used in France, is found, however, in great abundance in the flat country of the Laudes.

2 On the contrary, the yoke-elm, or horn-beam, grows almost exclusively on the plains; and the same with the cornel and the poplar.

3 The Rhus cotinus of Linnæus, the fustic. See ii. xiii. . 41. This, however, imparts a yellow colour, while Pliny speaks of a purple. It has been asserted, however, that the roots of it produce a fine red. There is no tree in Europe that produces a purple for dyeing.

4 The maple, the ash, and the service-tree, are as often found in the plains as on the hills.

5 See c. 43, and B. xxiv. c. 43. The Cornus sanguinea of Linnæus, the blood-red cornel; the branches of which are red in the winter, and the fruit filled with a blood-red juice. This is probably the same shrub as the male cornel, mentioned further on by Pliny.

6 The Genista tinctoria of Linnæus, or "dyers'" broom.

7 Or "service-tree," the Sorbus domestica of Linnæus. It thrives just as well in a warm locality as a cold one.

8 The Betula alba of Linnæus. It was an object of terror not only in the hands of the Roman lietor, but in those of the pedagogue also and is still to some extent. Hence it was formerly nicknamed "Arbor sapientiæ," the "tree of wisdom."

9 This is no longer done in France, but it is in Russia, where they extract from it an empyreumatic oil, which is used in preparing Russia leather, and which imparts to it its agreeable smell.

10 Boys, both of whose parents were surviving, used to carry before the bride a torch of white thorn. This thorn was, not improbably, the "Cratægus oxyacantha" of Linnæus, which bears a white flower. See B. xxiv. c. 66.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 30. (18.)—THE, NATURES OF THE VARIOUS TREES ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCALITIES: THE MOUNTAIN TREES, AND THE TREES OF THE PLAIN.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 30. (18.)—THE, NATURES OF THE VARIOUS TREES ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCALITIES: THE MOUNTAIN TREES, AND THE TREES OF THE PLAIN.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.