Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 69

by Theophrastus

Which woods can best support weight.

VI. ^[1]For bearing weight silver-fir and fir are strong woods, when set slantwise^[2]: for they do not give like oak and other woods which contain mineral matter, but make good resistance. A proof of this is that they never split like olive and oak, but decay first or fail in some other way. Palm-wood is also strong, for it bends the opposite way to other woods: they bend downwards, palm-wood upwards.^[3] It is said that fir and silver-fir also have an upward thrust. As to the sweet chestnut, which grows tall and is used for roofing, it is said that when it is about to split, it makes a noise, so that men are forewarned: this occurred once at Antandros at the baths, and all those present rushed out. Fig-wood is also strong, but only when set upright.^[4]

1. Plin. 16. 222–224.
2. e.g. as a strut. πλάγιαι conj. Sch. from Plin. l.c.; ἁπαλαὶ Ald. H.
3. i.e. the strut becomes concave or convex respectively. cf. Xen. Cyr. 7. 5. 11.
4. i.e. it cannot be used as a strut, or it would 'buckle,' though it will stand a vertical strain.

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