called its white 'centre,' which answers, as it were, to the aigis of the fir, except that it is white, while the other is bright-coloured because it is glutted with pitch. It becomes close white and good in trees which are of some age, but it is seldom found in good condition, while the ordinary form of it is abundant and is used to make painters' boards and ordinary writing tablets,[1] superior ones being[2] made of the better form.
However the Arcadians call both substances aigis, alike that of the fir[3] and the corresponding part of the silver-fir,[4] and say that, though the silver-fir produces more, that of the fir is better; for that, though that of the silver-fir is abundant[5] smooth and close, that of the fir, though scanty, is compacter stronger and fairer in general. The Arcadians then appear to differ as to the names which they give. Such are the differences in the silver-fir as compared with the fir, and there is also that of having the amphauxis,[6] which we mentioned before.
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,[7] the roots neither numerous nor running deep; the fruit is smooth like an acorn, enclosed in a shell,
