Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  At the present day the sacrificial pipes used by the Tuscans are made of box-wood, while those employed at the games are made of the lotus, the bones of the ass, or else silver. The fowler’s reeds of the best quality are those of Panormus, and the best reeds for fishing-rods come from Abarita in Africa.

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  CHAP. 67.

  THE VINE-DRESSERS’ REED.

  The reed is employed in Italy more particularly, as a sup- port for the vine. Cato recommends that it should be planted in a damp situation, the soil being first turned up with a double mattock, and a distance of three feet left between the young layers; he says, too, that the wild asparagus from which the cultivated species is produced, may be planted together with it, as they agree particularly well together.

  (37.) He says also that the willow may be planted in its vicinity, than which there is no aquatic plant of more general utility, although the poplar may be preferred for the training of the vine, and the support of the Cæcuban grape; although, too, the alder affords a more efficient protection by the hedges it forms, and, planted in the very water, makes a rampart along the banks in defence of the adjoining country against the violence of the rivers when they overflow; when cut down, too, this last tree is useful for the innumerable suckers which it throws out.

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  CHAP. 68.

  THE WILLOW: EIEGT VARIETIES OF IT.

  Of the willow, too, there are several varieties. One of them throws out its branches to a considerable height; and these, coupled together, serve as perches for the vine, while the bark around the tree itself is used for withes. Others, again, of a more pliable nature, supply a flexible twig, which is used for the purpose of tying; while others throw out osiers of remarkable thinness, adapted by their suppleness and graceful slenderness for the manufacture of wicker-work. Others, again, of a stouter make, are used for weaving panniers, and many other utensils employed in agriculture; while from a whiter willow the bark is peeled off, and, being remarkably tractable, admits of various utensils being made of it, which require a softer and more pliable material than leather: this last is also found particularly useful in the construction of those articles of luxury, reclining chairs. The willow, when cut, continues to thrive, and, indeed, throws out more thickly from the top, which, when closely clipped, bears a stronger resemblance to a closed fist than the top of a stump. It is a tree, which, in my opinion, deserves to be placed by no means in the lowest rank of trees; for there is none that will yield a more certain profit, which can be cultivated at less expense, or which is less liable to be influenced by changes in the weather.

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  CHAP. 69.

  TREES IN ADDITION TO THE WILLOW, WHICH ARE OF USE IN MAKING WITHES.

  Cato considers the culture of the willow as deserving to hold the third rank in estimation, and he gives it precedence to the cultivation of the olive, tillage for corn, or laying out land for pasture. It is not, however, because the willow is the only tree that produces withes; for they may be procured also from the broom, the poplar, the elm, the blood-red cornel, the birch, and the reed itself when split, or else the leaves of that plant, as we know to be the case in Liguria. The vine, also, will furnish them; the bramble, too, with the thorns removed, as well as the twisted hazel. It is a very singular thing, that a wood after it has been beaten and pounded should be found all the stronger for making withes, but such is a striking peculiarity that exists in the willow. The Greek red willow is split for this purpose: while the willow of Ameria is whiter but more brittle, for which reason it is used in an uncut state for tying. In Asia there are three varieties known of the willow; the black willow, which is best adapted for making withes, the white willow, employed for various agricultural purposes, and a third, which is shorter than the others, and known as the helix.

  With us, also, there is the same number of denominations given to as many varieties of the willow; one being known as the viminal or purple willow, another as the nitelina, from its resemblance to the colour of the nitela, thinner in the trunk than the preceding one, and the third as the Gallic kind, being the thinnest of them all.

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  CHAP. 70.

  RUSHES: CANDLE-RUSHES: RUSHES FOR THATCHING.

  The rush, so frail in form, and growing in marshy spots, cannot be reckoned as belonging to the shrubs, nor yet to the brambles or the stalk plants; nor, indeed, in strict justice, to any of the classes of plants except one that is peculiarly its own. It is extensively used for making thatch and matting, and, with the outer coat taken off, for making candles and funeral torches. In some places, however, the rush is more hard and firm: thus, for instance, it is employed not only by the sailors on the Padus for making the sails of boats, but for the purposes of sea-fishing as well, by the fishermen of Africa, who, in a most preposterous manner, hang the sails made of it behind the masts. The people, too, of Mauritania thatch their cottages with rushes; indeed, if we look somewhat closely into the matter, it will appear that the rush is held in pretty nearly the same degree of estimation there as the papyrus is in the inner regions of the world.

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  CHAP. 71.

  THE ELDER: THE BRAMBLE.

  Of a peculiar nature, too, though to be reckoned among the water-plants, is the bramble, a shrub-like plant, and the elder, which is of a spongy nature, though not resembling giant fennel, from having upon it a greater quantity of wood. It is a belief among the shepherds that if they cut a horn or trumpet from the wood of this tree, it will give all the louder sound if cut in a spot where the shrub has been out of hearing of the crowing of the cock. The bramble bears mulberries, and one variety of it, known as the cynosbatos, bears a flower similar to the rose. There is a third variety, known to the Greeks as the Idæan bramble, from the place where it grows: it is slighter than the others, with smaller thorns, and not so hooked. Its flower, mixed with honey, is employed as an ointment for sore eyes and erysipelas: and an infusion of it in water is used for diseases of the stomach.

  The elder bears a small black berry, which contains a viscous juice, employed more particularly for staining the hair. The berries, too, are boiled in water and eaten.

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  CHAP. 72. (38.)

  THE JUICES OF TREES.

  There is a juice in the bark of trees, which must be looked upon as their blood, though it is not of a similar nature in all. In the fig it is of a milky consistency, and has the peculiar property of curdling milk, and so forming cheese. In the cherry-tree this juice is gummy, in the elm clammy, in the apple viscous and fatty, while in the vine and the pear it is watery. The more viscous this humour is, the more long-lived the tree. In a word, we find in the bodies of trees-as with all other beings that are animated-skin, blood, flesh, sinews, veins, bones, and marrow; the bark serving them in place of skin. It is a singular fact connected with the mulberry-tree, that when the medical men wish to extract its juice, if the incision is lightly made, by a blow with a stone, and at the second hour of the day in spring, the juice will flow: but if, on the other hand, a wound is inflicted to any depth, it has all the, appearance of being dried up.

  Immediately beneath the bark in most trees there is a fatty substance, which, from its colour, has obtained the name of alburnum: it is soft, and is the very worst part of the wood, and in the robur even will very easily rot, being particularly liable to wood-worm, for which reason it is invariably removed. Beneath this fat lies the flesh of the tree, and then under that, its bones, or, in other words, the choicest part of the wood. Those trees which have a dry wood, the olive, for instance, bear fruit every other year only: this is more the case with them than with those the wood of which is of a fleshy nature, such as the cherry, for instance. It is not all trees, too, that have this fat and flesh in any abundance, the same as we find to be the case among the more active animals. The box, the cornel, and the olive have none at all, nor yet a
ny marrow, and a very small proportion, too, of blood. In the same way, too, the service-tree has no bones, and the elder no flesh, while both of them have marrow in the greatest abundance. Reeds, too, have hardly any flesh.

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  CHAP. 73.

  TE VEINS AND FIBRES OF TREES.

  In the flesh of some trees we find both fibres and veins: they are easily distinguished. The veins are larger, while the fibres are of whiter material, and are to be found in those woods more particularly which are easily split. Hence it is that if the ear is applied to the extremity of a beam of wood, however long, a tap with a graver even upon the other end may be distinctly heard, the sound penetrating by the passages which run straight through it: by these means it is that we ascertain whether timber runs awry, or is interrupted by knots. The tuberosities which we find on trees resemble the kernels that are formed in flesh: they contain neither veins nor fibres, but only a kind of tough, solid flesh, rolled up in a sort of ball: it is these tuberosities that are the most esteemed parts in the citrus and the maple. As to the other kinds of wood which are employed for making tables, the trees are split into planks lengthwise, and the parts are then selected along which the fibres run, and properly rounded; for the wood would be too brittle to use if it were cut in segments crosswise. in the beech, the grain of the fibrous part runs crosswise; hence it is that the ancients held in such high esteem all vessels made with the wood of it. Manius Curius made oath, on one occasion, that he had not touched an article of all the spoil except a single oil cruet of beech, to use for sacrificing. Wood is always put lengthwise into the water to season, as that part which was nearest the root will sink to a greater depth than the other. In some wood there is fibre, without veins, and merely consisting of filaments slightly knit together: wood of this nature is remarkably fissile. Other wood, again, is more easily broken across than split, such as the wood of those trees that have no fibre, the olive and the vine, for instance: on the other hand, in the fig-tree, the whole of the body consists of flesh. The holm-oak, the cornel, the robur, the cytisus, the mulberry, the ebony, the lotus, and the other trees which we have mentioned as being destitute of marrow, consist entirely of bone. All these woods are of a blackish colour, with the exception of the cornel, of which glossy yellow hunting-spears are made, marked with incisions for their further embellishment. In the cedar, the juniper, and the larch, the wood is red.

  (39.) In Greece the female larch furnishes a wood which is known as ægis, and is just the colour of honey. This wood has been found to be proof against decay, and forms the pannels used by painters, being never known to gape or split; the portion thus employed is that which lies nearest to the pith. In the fir-tree this part is called “leuson” by the Greeks. In the cedar, too, the hardest part is the wood that lies nearest to the sap: after the slimys pith has been carefully removed, it has a similar degree of hardness to the bones in the bodies of animals. It is said, too, that in Greece the inner part of the elder is remarkably firm: indeed, those whose business it is to make hunting spears, prefer this material to all others, it being a wood composed wholly of skin and bone.

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  CHAP. 74.

  THE FELLING OF TREES.

  The proper time for felling trees that are wanted for barking, the round, tapering trees, for instance, that are employed in temples and for other purposes, is at the period of germination: for at other times it is quite impossible to detach the bark from the rotten wood that adheres to it, while the wood itself assumes a blackish hue. Squared logs, and wood from which the bark has been lopped, are generally cut in the period that intervenes between the winter solstice and the prevalence of the west winds; or else, if it is necessary to anticipate that period, at the setting of Arcturus and before that of the Lyre, the very earliest period being the summer solstice: the days of these respective constellations will be mentioned in the appropriate place.

  In general it is looked upon as quite sufficient to use all due precaution that a tree is not rough-hewn before it has borne its yearly crop. The robur, if cut in spring, is subject to the attacks of wood-worm, but if cut in winter, will neither rot nor warp: otherwise it is very liable to bend and become awry, as well as to crack; the same is the case, too, with the cork-tree, even if cut down at the proper time. The state of the moon, too, is of infinite importance, and it is generally recommended that trees should be cut only between the twentieth and the thirtieth days of the month. It is generally agreed, however, by all, that it is the very best time for felling timber, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun, a day which is called by some persons the interlu- nium, and by others the moon’s silence. At all events, it was under these circumstances that Tiberius Cæsar gave orders for the larches to be cut in Rhætia, that were required for the purpose of rebuilding the bridge of the Naumachia after it had been destroyed by fire. Some persons say that the moon ought not only to be in conjunction, but below the horizon as well, a thing that can only happen in the night. If the conj unction should chance to fall on the very day of the winter solstice, the timber, they say, that is then felled will be of everlasting duration; the next best being the timber that is cut when the conjunction coincides with the constellations previously mentioned. There are some, too, who add the rising of the Dog-star as a favourable time, and say that it was at this period that the timber was cut which was employed in building the Forum of Augustus.

  Wood which is intended for timber ought to be cut neither when too young nor too old. Some persons, too — and the practice is by no means without its utility — cut round the tree as far as the pith, and then leave the timber standing, so that all the juices may be enabled to escape. Going back to ancient times, it is a remarkable fact, that in the first Punic War the fleet commanded by Duillius was on the water within sixty days from the time the timber was cut: and, what is still more so, Piso relates that King Hiero had two hundred and twenty ships wholly constructed in forty-five days: in the second Punic War, too, the fleet of Scipio was at sea the fortieth day after the axe had been put to the tree. Such is the energy and dispatch that can be displayed on occasions of emergency.

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  CHAP. 75.

  TE OPINION OF CATO ON THE FELLING OF TIMBER.

  Cato, a man of consummate authority in all practical matters, expresses himself in relation to timber to the following effect:— “For making presses, employ the wood of the sappinus in preference. When you root up the elm, the pine, the nut- tree, or, indeed, any other kind of tree, mind and do so when the moon is on the wane, after midday, and when there is no south wind blowing. The proper time for cutting a tree is when the seed is ripe, but be careful not to draw it away or plane it while the dew is falling.” He then proceeds to say—” Never touch the timber, except when the moon is on the change, or else at the end of the second quarter: at those periods you may either root up the tree, or fell it as it stands. The next seven days after the full moon are the best of all for grubbing up a tree. Be particularly careful, too, not to rough- hew timber, or, indeed, to cut or touch it, unless it is perfectly dry; and by no means while it is covered with frost or dew.”

  The Emperor Tiberius used also to observe the changes of the moon for cutting his hair. M. Varro has recommended that the hair should be cut at full moon only, if we would avoid baldness.

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  CHAP. 76.

  THE SIZE OF TREES: THE NATURE OF WOOD: THE SAPPINUS.

  From the larch, and still more the fir, after it has been cut, a liquid flows for a considerable period: these are the loftiest and straightest of all the trees. The fir is preferred for making the masts and sailyards of ships, on account of its comparative lightness. It is a common feature with these trees, in common with the pine, to have four rows of veins running along the wood, or else two, or sometimes only one. The heart of these trees is peculiarly well adapted for joiners’ work, and the best wood of all is that which has four lay
ers of veins, it being softer than the rest: men of experience in these matters can instantly form a judgment of the quality from the bark. That part in the fir which is nearest to the ground is free from knots: when soaked in river water in the way we have already mentioned, and then barked, the wood of this part is known as sappinus; while that of the upper part, which is harder and knotty, goes by the name of “fusterna.” In trees, the side which looks towards the northeast is the most robust, and it is universally the case, that those which grow in moist and damp localities are of inferior quality, while in those which grow in warm and sunny spots, the wood is more compact and durable; hence it is, that at Rome the fir is preferred that grows on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea to that of the shores of the Adriatic.