WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 339: CHAP. 31.—TREES WHICH GROW ON A DRY SOIL: THOSE WHICH ARE FOUND IN WET LOCALITIES: THOSE WHICH ARE FOUND IN BOTH INDIFFERENTLY.
By the Elder Pliny
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Classics of LiteratureHistory - AncientNature/Gardening/AnimalsScience - Biology

About This Book

The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 31.—TREES WHICH GROW ON A DRY SOIL: THOSE WHICH ARE FOUND IN WET LOCALITIES: THOSE WHICH ARE FOUND IN BOTH INDIFFERENTLY.

The cypress, the walnut, the chesnut, and the laburnum,2411 are averse to water. This last tree is also a native of the Alps, and far from generally known: the wood is hard and white,2412 and the flowers, which are a cubit2413 in length, no bee will ever touch. The shrub, too, known as Jupiter’s beard,2414 manifests an equal dislike to water: it is often clipped, and is employed in ornamental gardening, being of a round, bushy form, with a silvery leaf. The willow, the alder, the poplar,2415 the siler,2416 and the privet,2417 so extensively employed for making tallies,2418 will only grow in damp, watery places; which is the case also with the vaccinium,2419 grown in Italy for drugging our slaves,2420 and in Gaul for the purpose of dyeing the garments of slaves a purple colour. All those trees2421 which are common to the mountains and the plains, grow to a larger size, and are of more comely appearance when grown on the plains, while those found on the mountains have a better wood and more finely veined, with the exception of the apple and the pear.