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 which is glistening and swollen as though the tree were just about to burst into leaf, and this persists through the winter. The sorb, like the medlar, is thornless; it has smooth rather shiny bark, (except when the tree is old), which in colour is a whitish yellow; but in old trees it is rough and black. The tree is of a good size, of erect growth and with well balanced foliage; for in general it assumes a cone-like shape as to its foliage, unless something interferes. The wood is hard close strong and of a good colour; the roots are not numerous and do not run deep, but they are strong and thick and indestructible. The tree grows from a root, from a piece torn off, or from seed, and seeks a cold moist position; in such a position it is tenacious of life and hard to kill: however it also grows on mountains.

XIII. The kerasos (bird-cherry) is peculiar in character; it is of great stature, growing as much as twenty-four cubits high; and it is of very erect growth; as to thickness, it is as much as two cubits in circumference at the base. The leaves are like those of the medlar, but very tough and thicker, so that the tree is conspicuous by its colour from a distance. The bark in smoothness colour and thickness is like that of the lime; wherefore men make their writing-cases from it, as from the bark of that tree. This bark does not grow straight nor evenly all round the tree, but runs round it in a spiral