winter-bud[1] 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,[2] it shows some small fine seeds of the same size as those of orach. The leaf and the bark[3] 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.
Of maple and ash.
XI. Of the maple, as we have said,[4] some make[5] two kinds, some three; one they call by the general name 'maple,' another zygia, the third klinotrokhos[6]; this name, for instance, is used by the people of Stagira. The difference between zygia and maple proper is that the latter has white wood of finer fibre, while that of zygia is yellow and of compact texture. The leaf[7] in both trees is large, resembling that of the plane in the way in which it is
- ↑ cf. 3. 5. 5. and 6.
- ↑ διακνιζόμενος: διασχιζόμενος, 'when split open,' conj. W.
- ↑ cf. 1. 12. 4; C.P. 6. 12. 7.
- ↑ 3. 3. 1.
- ↑ προσαγορεύουσι conj. W. from G; προσαγορεύεται Ald.
- ↑ κλινότροχον Ald.; κλινόστροχον U; ἰνότροχον conj. Salm. from Plin. 16. 66 and 67, cursivenium or crassivenium. Sch. thinks that the word conceals γλῖνος; cf. 3. 3. 1; 3. 11. 2.
- ↑ φύλλον conj. R. Const.; ξύλον UMVAld.H.G.
