BOOK XVI
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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES.
1. Countries that have no trees 339
2. Wonders connected with trees in the northern regions 340
3. The acorn oak. The civic crown 341
4. The origin of the presentation of crowns 342
5. Persons presented with a crown of leaves 343
6. Thirteen varieties of the acorn 345
7. The beech 346
8. The other acorns—wood for fuel _ib._
9. The gall-nut 350
10. Other productions on these trees besides the acorn _ib._
11. Cachrys 351
12. The kermes berry 353
13. Agaric _ib._
14. Trees of which the bark is used 354
15. Shingles 355
16. The pine _ib._
17. The pinaster 356
18. The pitch-tree: the fir _ib._
19. The larch: the torch-tree 357
20. The yew 360
21. Methods of making tar—how cedrium is made 361
22. Methods by which thick pitch is prepared _ib._
23. How the resin called zopissa is prepared 363
24. Trees the wood of which is highly valued. Four varieties of the ash 365
25. Two varieties of the linden-tree 366
26. Ten varieties of the maple 367
27. Bruscum: molluscum; the staphylodendron 368
28. Three varieties of the box-tree _ib._
29. Four varieties of the elm 370
30. The natures of the various trees according to their localities: the mountain trees, and the trees of the plain _ib._
31. Trees which grow on a dry soil: those which are found in wet localities: those which are found in both indifferently 372
32. Division of trees into various species 373
33. Trees which do not lose their foliage. The rhododendron. Trees which do not lose the whole of their foliage. Places in which there are no trees _ib._
34. The nature of the leaves which wither and fall 374
35. Trees which have leaves of various colours; trees with leaves of various shapes. Three varieties of the poplar 375
36. Leaves which turn round every year 376
37. The care bestowed on the leaves of the palm, and the uses to which they are applied 377
38. Remarkable facts connected with leaves _ib._
39. The natural order of the production of plants 379
40. Trees which never blossom. The juniper 380
41. The fecundation of trees. Germination: the appearance of the fruit 381
42. In what order the trees blossom 383
43. At what period each tree bears fruit. The cornel 384
44. Trees which bear the whole year. Trees which have on them the fruit of three years 385
45. Trees which bear no fruit: trees looked upon as ill-omened 385
46. Trees which lose their fruit or flowers most readily 386
47. Trees which are unproductive in certain places 387
48. The mode in which trees bear _ib._
49. Trees in which the fruit appears before the leaves _ib._
50. Trees which bear two crops in a year. Trees which bear three crops 388
51. Which trees become old with the greatest rapidity, and which most slowly 389
52. Trees which bear various products. Cratægum 390
53. Differences in trees in respect of the trunks and branches 391
54. The branches of trees 392
55. The bark of trees 393
56. The roots of trees _ib._
57. Trees which have grown spontaneously from the ground 394
58. How trees grow spontaneously—diversities in their nature, the same trees not growing everywhere 395
59. Plants that will not grow in certain places 396
60. The cypress 397
61. That the earth often bears productions which it has never borne before 399
62. The ivy—twenty varieties of it _ib._
63. The smilax 402
64. Water plants: the rush: twenty-eight varieties of the reed 403
65. Reeds used for arrows, and for the purpose of writing 404
66. Flute reeds: the reed of Orchomenus; reeds used for fowling and fishing 405
67. The vine-dresser’s reed 408
68. The willow: eight varieties of it 409
69. Trees, in addition to the willow, which are of use in making withes 410
70. Rushes: candle-rushes: rushes for thatching 411
71. The elder: the bramble _ib._
72. The juices of trees 412
73. The veins and fibres of trees 413
74. The felling of trees 415
75. The opinion of Cato on the felling of timber 416
76. The size of trees: the nature of wood: the sappinus 417
77. Methods of obtaining fire from wood 421
78. Trees which are proof against decay: trees which never split 422
79. Historical facts connected with the durability of wood 423
80. Varieties of the teredo 425
81. The woods used in building 426
82. Carpenters’ woods 427
83. Woods united with glue _ib._
84. Veneering 428
85. The age of trees. A tree that was planted by the first Scipio Africanus. A tree at Rome five hundred years old 429
86. Trees as old as the City 430
87. Trees in the suburban districts older than the City _ib._
88. Trees planted by Agamemnon the first year of the Trojan war: other trees which date from the time that the place was called Ilium, anterior to the Trojan war 431
89. Trees planted at Argos by Hercules: others planted by Apollo. A tree more ancient than Athens itself _ib._
90. Trees which are the most short-lived 432
91. Trees which have been rendered famous by remarkable events _ib._
92. Plants which have no peculiar spot for their growth: others that grow upon trees, and will not grow in the ground. Nine varieties of them: cadytas, polypodion, phaulias, hippophæston 433
93. Three varieties of mistletoe. The nature of mistletoe and similar plants 434
94. The method of making birdlime 435
95. Historical facts connected with the mistletoe 435
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