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ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. viii. 5–7
 

ning, although they are not lofty; nor do they use the wood for their sacrifices.Such then are the differences as to timber and general appearance.

[1]All the kinds produce galls, but only hemeris (gall-oak) produces one which is of use for tanning hides. That of aigilops (Turkey-oak) and that of the 'broad-leaved' oak (scrub oak) are in appearance like that of hemeris (gall-oak), but smoother and useless. This also produces the other gall, the black kind, with which they dye wool. The substance which some call tree-moss and which resembles rags[2] is borne only by the aigilops (Turkey-oak); it is grey and rough[3] and hangs down for a cubit's length, like a long shred of linen. This grows from the bark and not from the knob[4] whence the acorn starts; nor does it grow from an eye, but from the side of the upper boughs. The sea-bark oak also produces this, but it is blackish[5] and short.

Thus the people of Mount Ida distinguish. But the people of Macedonia make four kinds, 'true-oak,' or the oak which bears the sweet acorns, 'broad-leaved' oak (scrub oak), or that which bears the bitter ones, Valonia oak, or that which bears the round ones, and aspris[6] (Turkey-oak); [7]the last-named some say is altogether without fruit, some say it bears poor fruit, so that no animal eats it except the pig, and only he when he can get no others, and that after eating it the pig mostly gets an affection of the head.[8] The wood is also wretched; when hewn with the axe it is altogether

  1. Plin. 16. 26.
  2. φάσκον … ῥακίοις conj. Sch.(ῥακίοις Salm.): φάσκος ὅμοιος τοῖς βραχείοις UP2; φάσκον ὁμοίως τοῖς βραγχίοις Ald.H. Plin. 16. 33, cf. 12. 108; Diosc. 1. 20; Hesych. s.v. φάσκος
  3. τραχὺ conj. W.; βραχὺ UP.
  4. κορύνης.cf. 3. 5. 1.
  5. ἐπίμελαν τοῦτο φύει conj. Scal.; ἐπιμ. τοῦτο φύσει U; ἐπὶ μελίαν τοῦτο φύει MVAld.
  6. See Index.
  7. Plin. 16. 24.
  8. περικεφαλαίᾳ: apparently the name of a disease.
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