Page:Enquiry into plants (Volume 1).pdf/241

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ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. viii. 3–5
 

attached to the cup, in the other in the flesh itself.[1] Wherefore, when the cups are taken off, we find a cavity like the visceral cavities in animals.[2]

[3]There are also differences in leaves trunk timber and general appearance. Hemeris (gall-oak) is not straight-growing nor smooth nor tall, for its growth is very leafy[4] and twisted, with many side-branches, so that it makes a low much-branched tree: its timber is strong, but not so strong as that of the Valonia oak, for that is the strongest and the least liable to rot. This[5] kind too is not straight-growing, even less so than the hemeris (gall-oak), but the trunk is very thick, so that the whole appearance is stunted; for in growth this kind too is very leafy[4] and not erect. The aigilops (Turkey oak) is the straightest growing and also the tallest and smoothest, and its wood, cut lengthways, is the strongest. It does not grow on tilled land, or very rarely.

The 'broad-leaved' oak (scrub oak)[6] comes second as to straightness of growth and length of timber to be got from it, but for use in building it is the worst next after the sea-bark oak, and it is even poor wood for burning and making charcoal, as is also that of the sea-bark oak, and next after this kind it is the most worm-eaten. For the sea-bark oak has a thick trunk, but it is generally spongy and hollow when it is thick; wherefore it is useless for building. Moreover it rots very quickly, for the tree contains much moisture and that is why it also becomes; and that is why it also becomes hollow; and some say that it is the only[7] oak which has no heart. And some of the Aeolians say that these are the only oaks which are struck by light-

  1. i.e. at the 'top' end; πρὸς: ? ἐν, πρὸς being repeated by mistake.
  2. ζώων MSS.; ὠῶν conj. Palm.
  3. Plin. 16. 22.
  4. 4.0 4.1 i.e. of bushy habit.
  5. Plin. 16. 23 and 24.
  6. αὕτη conj. Sch.; αὐτὴ UAld.
  7. μόνῃ conj. St.; μόνῃν Ald. H.
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