in the pine too it is scanty and bitter,[1] as in this other cone-bearing tree, but in the fir it is fragrant and abundant. Now the pine is rare in Arcadia, but common in Elis. The Arcadians then dispute altogether the nomenclature.
The pine appears to differ also from the fir in being glossier and having finer leaves, while it is smaller in stature and does not grow so straight; also in bearing a smaller cone, which is stiffer and has a more pitchy kernel, while its wood is whiter, more like that of the silver-fir, and wholly free from pitch. And there is another great difference[2] between it and the fir; the fir, if it is burnt down to the roots, does not shoot up again, while the pine, according to some, will do so; for instance this happened in Lesbos,[3] when the pine-forest of Pyrrha[4] was burnt. The people of Ida say that the fir is liable to a kind of disease;—when not only the heart but the outer part of the trunk becomes glutted[5] with pitch, the tree then is as it were choked. This happens of its own accord through the excessive luxuriance of the tree, as one may conjecture for it all turns into pitch-glutted wood. This then is an affection peculiar to the fir.
[6]The silver-fir is either 'male' or 'female,' and has differences in its leaves[7]; those of the 'male' are sharper more needle-like and more bent; wherefore the whole tree has a more compact appearance. There are also differences in the wood, that of the 'female' being whiter softer and easier to work,
- ↑ πικρὰν conj. R. Const. from G; μικρὰν VAld.
- ↑ καὶ ταύτην μεγάλην πρὸς conj. Sch.; καὶ τὴν μεγ. πρὸς UMV; μεγάλην πρὸς Ald.
- ↑ ἐν Λέσβῳ conj. W. from G, and Plin. 16. 46; εἰς Λέσβον MSS.
- ↑ On the W. of Lesbos, modern Caloni. cf. 2. 2. 6; Plin. l.c.
- ↑ cf. 1. 6. 1; Plin. 16. 44.
- ↑ Plin. 16. 48.
- ↑ cf. 1. 8. 2.
