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ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. v. 2-4
 

one coat, as in fig reed darnel. Such are the respects in which bark differs.

Next of the woods themselves and of stems generally some are fleshy, as in oak and fig, and, among lesser plants, in buckthorn[1] beet hemlock[2]; while some are not fleshy, for instance, prickly cedar nettle-tree cypress. Again some are fibrous, for of this character is the wood of the silver-fir and the date-palm; while some are not fibrous,[3] as in the fig. In like manner some are full of 'veins,' others veinless. Further in shrubby plants and undershrubs and in woody plants[4] in general one might find other differences: thus the reed is jointed, while the bramble and Christ's thorn have thorns on the wood. Bulrush and some of the marsh or pond plants are in like manner[5] without joints and smooth, like the rush; and the stem of galingale and sedge has a certain smoothness beyond those just mentioned; and still more perhaps has that of the mushroom.

Differences as to qualities and properties.

These then would seem to be the differences in the parts which make up the plant. Those which belong to the qualities[6] and properties are such as hardness or softness, toughness or brittleness, closeness or openness of texture, lightness or heaviness, and the like. For willow-wood is light from the first, even when it is green, and so is that of the cork-oak; but box and ebony are not light even when dried. Some woods again can be split,[7] such

  1. ῥάμνου conj. W.; θάμνου P2; βαλάνου Ald.H.
  2. κωνείου conj. Sch.; κωνίου Ald.U (corrected to κωνείου). cf. 7. 6. 4.
  3. δὲ ἂινα conj. Sen. from G.: δὲ βῐνα U; δὲ μανά Ald.; δὲ. . .να M.
  4. ὑλήματα conj. Sch. (a general term including shrubs, under-shrubs, etc. cf. 1. 6.7; 1. 10. 6); κλήματα, Ald.
  5. ὁμοίως, sense doubtful; ὁμωνύμων conj. W.
  6. πάθη, cf. 1.1.1 n.
  7. σχίζεται conj. W.; σχίσθέντα UMVAld.; σχιστά H.; fissiles G.
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