# Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 40

Of maple and ash.
XI. Of the maple, as we have said, some make two kinds, some three; one they call by the general name 'maple,' another zygia, the third klinotrokhos; this name, for instance, is used by the people of Stagira. The difference between zygia and maple proper is that the latter has white wood of finer fibre, while that of zygia is yellow and of compact texture. The leaf in both trees is large, resembling that of the plane in the way in which it is ​divided; it is smooth, but more delicate, less fleshy, softer, longer in proportion to its breadth, and the divisions all tend to meet in a point, while they do not occur so much in the middle of the leaf, but rather at the tip; and for their size the leaves have not many fibres. The bark too is somewhat rougher than that of the lime, of blackish colour thick closer than that of the Aleppo pine and stiff; the roots are few shallow and compact for the most part, both those of the yellow and those of the white-wooded tree. This tree occurs chiefly in wet ground, as the people of Mount Ida say, and is rare. About its flower they did not know, but the fruit, they said, is not very oblong, but like that of Christ's thorn, except that it is more oblong than that. But the people of Mount Olympus say that, while zygia is rather a mountain tree, the maple proper grows also in the plains; and that the form which grows in the mountains has yellow wood of a bright colour, which is of compact texture and hard, and is used even for expensive work, while that of the plains has white wood of looser make and less compact texture. And some call it gleinos instead of maple. …… The wood of the 'male' tree is of compacter texture and twisted; this tree, it is said, grows rather in the plain and puts forth its leaves earlier.
There are also two kinds of ash. Of these one is lofty and of strong growth with white wood of good fibre, softer, with less knots, and of more compact ​texture; the other is shorter, less vigorous in growth, rougher harder and yellower. The leaves in shape are like those of the bay, that is, the broad-leaved bay, but they contract to a sharper point, and they have a sort of jagged outline with sharp points. The whole leaf (if one may consider this as a 'leaf' because it is all shed at once) grows on a single stalk; on either side of a single fibre, as it were, the leaflets grow at a joint in pairs, which are numerous and distinct, just as in the sorb. In some leaves the joints are short and the pairs fewer in number, but in those of the white kind the joint is long and the pairs more numerous, while the leaflets are longer narrower and leek-green in colour. Also this tree has a smooth bark, which is dry thin and red in colour. The roots are matted stout and shallow. As to the fruit, the people of Ida supposed it to have none, and no flower either; however it has a nut-like fruit in a thin pod, like the fruit of the almond, and it is somewhat bitter in taste. And it also bears certain other things like winter-buds, as does the bay, but they are more solid, and each separate one is globular, like those of the plane; some of these occur around the fruit, some, in fact the greater number, are at a distance from it. The smooth kind grows mostly in deep ravines and damp places, the rough kind occurs also in dry and rocky parts. Some, for instance the Macedonians, call the ​one 'ash' (manna-ash), the other 'horse-ash' (ash). The 'horse-ash' is a larger and more spreading tree, wherefore it is of less compact appearance. It is naturally a tree of the plains and rough, while the other belongs to the mountains and is smooth; the one which grows on the mountains is fair-coloured smooth hard and stunted, while that of the plains is colourless spreading and rough. (In general one may say of trees that grow in the plain and on themountain respectively, that the latter are of fair colour hard and smooth, as beech elm and the rest; while those of the plain are more spreading, of less good colour and inferior, except the pear apple and wild pear, according to the people of Mount Olympus. These when they grow in the plain are better both in fruit and in wood; for on the mountain they are rough spinous and much branched, in the plain smoother larger and with sweeter and fleshier fruit. However the trees of the plain are always of larger size.)
* ↑ 3. 3. 1.
* ↑ προσαγορεύουσι conj. W. from G; προσαγορεύεται Ald.
* ↑ κλινότροχον Ald.; κλινόστροχον U; ἰνότροχον conj. Salm. from Plin. 16. 66 and 67, cursivenium or crassivenium. Sch. thinks that the word conceals γλῖνος; cf. 3. 3. 1; 3. 11. 2.
* ↑ φύλλον conj. R. Const.; ξύλον UMVAld.H.G.
* ↑ τετανὸν: cf. 3. 12. 5; 3. 15. 6.
* ↑ σχίσμαθ᾽ conj. R. Const. from G; σχίμαθ᾽ Ald.Cam.; σχήμαθ᾽ Bas., which W. reads.
* ↑ ὅλα: ?ὅλως.
* ↑ i.e. do not run back so far.
* ↑ πολύϊνα conj. R. Const.; πολύ• ἰνα δὲ Ald.;
* ↑ πυκνότερον conj. Scal. from G; πυρώτερον UAld.
* ↑ ἐφύδροις: ὑφύδροις conj. Sch. cf. ὕφαμμος, ὑπόπετρος.
* ↑ cf. 3. 9. 6 n.; Intr. p. xx.
* ↑ cf. 3. 18. 3.
* ↑ cf. 3. 3. 1; Plin. 16. 67.
* ↑ W. marks a lacuna: the desciption of the 'female' tree seems to be missing.
* ↑ Plin. 16. 62–64.
* ↑ οὐλότερον: ἀνουλότερον W. from Sch.'s conk.; ἄνουλος does not occur elsewhere and T. uses μανός as the opposite of οὖλος.
* ↑ i.e. instead of considering the leaflets as the unit. For the description cf. 3. 12. 5; 3. 15. 4.
* ↑ βραχέα conj. Scal. from G; τραχέα UAld.H.
* ↑ Bod. inserts οὐ before μετέωρον; cf. 3. 6. 5. (Idaean account.)
* ↑ στιφρότερα conj. Dalec.; στρυφνότερα MSS.
* ↑ πλεῖστα conj. R. Const.; πλεκτὰ UMVAld.
* ↑ cf. Plin., l.c.
* ↑ cf. Plin., l.c., and Index.
* ↑ μεῖζον δὲ καὶ μανότερον conj. W. from G; μ. δὲ καὶ μανότερα MVU (? μανότερον); μείζων δὲ καὶ μακροτέρα Ald.H.
* ↑ καὶ τραχύ … λεῖον conj. Sch.; καὶ λεῖον … τραχὺ Ald.
* ↑ λεῖα conj. Mold,; λευκὰ Ald.G.
* ↑ μηλέας conj. Scal., cf. 3. 3. 2; μελίας UMAld.H.
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