places, but likewise in places which are not of this character. It is shrubby, with annual branches which go on growing in length till the fall of the leaf, after which they increase in thickness. The branches do not grow to a very great height, about six cubits at most. The thickness of the stem of old trees is about that of the 'helmet'[1] of a ship; the bark is smooth thin and brittle[2]; the wood is porous and light when dried, and has a soft heart-wood,[3] so that the boughs are hollow right through, and men make of them their light walking-sticks. When dried it is strong and durable if it is soaked, even if it is stripped of the bark; and it strips itself of its own accord as it dries. The roots are shallow and neither numerous nor large. The single leaflet is soft and oblong, like the leaf of the 'broad-leaved' bay, but larger broader and rounder at the middle and base, though the tip narrows more to a point and is jagged[4] all round. The whole leaf is composed of leaflets growing about a single thick fibrous stalk, as it were, to which they are attached at either side in pairs at each joint; and they are separate from one another, while one is attached to the tip of the stalk. The leaves are somewhat reddish porous and fleshy: the whole is shed in one piece; wherefore one may consider the whole structure as a 'leaf.'[5] The young twigs too have certain crooks[6] in them. The flower[7] is white, made up of a number of small white blossoms attached to the point where the stalk divides, in form like a honeycomb, and it has the heavy
- ↑ περικεφαλαίας, some part of a ship's prow: so Pollux.
- ↑ καπυρός conj. Sch.; καὶ πυρσός U (?); καὶ πυρρός V; καὶ πουρός M.
- ↑ Sc. pith.
- ↑ χαραγμόν conj. R. Const. from G; παραγμόν UMV; σπαραγμόν Ald.
- ↑ cf. 3. 11. 3 n.
- ↑ γωνοειδῆ U; ?γωνιοειδῆ; G seems to have read γονατοειδῆ; Sch. considers the text defective or mutilated.
- ↑ cf. 3. 12. 7 n.
