Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 39

by Theophrastus

Of beech, yew, hop-hornbeam, lime.

X. The beech presents no differences, there being but one kind. It is a straight-growing smooth and unbranched tree, and in thickness and height is about equal to the silver-fir, which it also resembles in other respects; the wood is of a fair colour strong and of good grain, the bark smooth and thick, the leaf undivided, longer than a pear-leaf, spinous at the tip,^[1] the roots neither numerous nor running deep; the fruit is smooth like an acorn, enclosed in a shell, however without prickles^[2] and smooth, not spinous,^[3] like the chestnut, though in sweetness and flavour it resembles it. In mountain country it also grows white and has^[4] timber which is useful for many purposes, for making carts beds chairs and tables, and for shipbuilding^[5]; while the tree of the plains is black and useless for these purposes; but the fruit is much the same in both.

^[6]The yew has also but one kind, is straight-growing, grows readily, and is like the silver-fir, except that it is not so tall and is more branched. Its leaf is also like that of the silver-fir, but glossier and less stiff. As to the wood, in the Arcadian yew it is black or red, in that of Ida bright yellow and like prickly cedar; wherefore they say that dealers practise deceit, selling it for that wood: for that it is all heart, when the bark is stripped off; its bark also resembles that of prickly cedar in roughness and colour, its roots are few slender and shallow. The tree is rare about Ida, but common in Macedonia and Arcadia; it bears a round fruit a little larger than a bean, which is red in colour and soft; and they say that, if beasts of burden^[7] eat of the leaves they die, while ruminants take no hurt. Even men sometimes eat the fruit, which is sweet and harmless.

The ostrys (hop-hornbeam),^[8] which some call ostrya, has also but one kind; it is like the beech in growth and bark its leaves are in shape like a pear's, except that they are much longer, come to a sharp point, are larger, and have many fibres, which branch out like ribs from a large straight one^[9] in the middle, and are thick also the leaves are wrinkled along the fibres and have a finely serrated edge; the wood is hard colourless and whitish; the fruit is small oblong and yellow like barley; it has shallow roots; it loves water and is found in ravines. It is said to be unlucky to bring it into the house, since, wherever it is, it is supposed to cause a painful death^[10] or painful labour in giving birth.

^[11]The lime has both 'male' and 'female' forms, which differ in their general appearance, in that of the wood, and in being respectively fruit-bearing and sterile. The wood of the 'male' tree is hard yellow more branched closer, and also more fragrant^[12]; that of the 'female' is whiter. The bark of the 'male' is thicker, and, when stripped off, is unbending because of its hardness; that of the 'female' is thinner^[13] and flexible; men make their writing-cases^[14] out of it. The 'male' has neither fruit nor flower, but the 'female' has both flower and fruit; the flower is cup-shaped, and appears alongside of the stalk of the leaf, or alongside of next year's winter-bud^[15] on a separate stalk it is green, when in the cup-like stage, but brownish as it opens; it appears at the same time as in the cultivated trees. The fruit is rounded oblong as large as a bean, resembling the fruit of the ivy; when mature, it has five angular projections, as it were, made by projecting fibres which meet in a point; the immature fruit is less articulated. When the mature fruit is pulled to pieces,^[16] it shows some small fine seeds of the same size as those of orach. The leaf and the bark^[17] are well flavoured and sweet; the leaf is like that of the ivy in shape, except that it rounds more gradually, being most curved at the part next the stalk, but in the middle contracting to a sharper and longer apex, and its edge is somewhat puckered and jagged. The timber contains little core, which is not much softer than the other part; for the rest of the wood is also soft.

1. i.e. mucronate.cf. 3. 11. 3.
2. ἐχῖνος being otherwise used of a prickly case, such as that of the chestnut. πλὴν ἀιακ. καὶ λείῳ conj. W.; πλὴν οὐκ ἀνακάνθωι καὶ λείωι U; πλὴν οὐκ ἐν ἀκάνθῳ MVAld.
3. ἀκανθώδει conj. R. Const.; ἀκανθώδη Ald.H.
4. λευκὴ ἣ καὶ conj. W.; λευκή τε καὶ Ald.H.
5. cf. 5. 6. 4; 5. 7. 3 and 6.
6. Plin. 16. 62. (description taken from this passage, but applied to fraxinus, apparently from confusion between μίλος and μελία).
7. cf. 2. 7. 4 n.
8. cf. 1. 8. 2 (ὀστρυίς), 3. 3. 1; C.P. 5. 12. 9 (ὀστρύη); Plin. 13. 117.
9. μέσης … κατατεινουσῶν conj. Sch.; μέσης πλευροειδῶς τῶν ἄλλων εὐθειῶν καὶ μεγάλην κατατεινουσῶν Ald.cf. 1. 10. 2; 3. 17. 3.
10. δυσθανατεῖν I conj.; δυσθάνατον P₂Ald.; δυσθανατᾶν conj. Sch., but δυσθανατᾶν has a desiderative sense.
11. Plin. 16. 65.
12. ἔτι δ᾽ εὐωδ. inserted here by Sch.; cf. Plin., l.c. In Ald. the words, with the addition τὸ τῆς θηλείας, occur after ποιοῦσιν.
13. λεπτότερος conj. Sch.; λευκότερος Ald.
14. cf. 3. 13. 1; Ar. Vesp. 529.
15. cf. 3. 5. 5. and 6.
16. διακνιζόμενος: διασχιζόμενος, 'when split open,' conj. W.
17. cf. 1. 12. 4; C.P. 6. 12. 7.

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