Page:Enquiry into plants (Volume 1).pdf/247

 : cf. 5. 1. 9; Plin. 16. 187.same kind, since it is by their use that the different characters are recognised.

The Idaean kind is, as we have said, of straighter and stouter growth, and moreover the tree is altogether more full of pitch, and its pitch is blacker sweeter thinner and more fragrant when it is fresh; though, when it is boiled, it turns out inferior, because it contains so much watery matter. However it appears that the kinds which these people distinguish by special names are distinguished by others merely as 'male' and 'female.' The people of Macedonia say that there is also a kind of fir which bears no fruit whatever, in which the 'male' (Aleppo pine) is shorter and has harder leaves, while the 'female' (Corsican pine) is taller and has glistening delicate leaves which are more pendent. Moreover the timber of the 'male' kind has much heart-wood, is tough, and warps in joinery work, while that of the 'female' is easy to work, does not warp, and is softer.

This distinction between 'male' and 'female' may, according to the woodmen, be said to be common to all trees. Any wood of a 'male' tree, when one comes to cut it with the axe, gives, shorter lengths, is more twisted, harder to work, and darker in colour; while the 'female' gives better lengths. For it is the 'female' fir which contains what is called the aigis ; this is the heart of the tree; the