Folio 79r - Item de arboribus; Again of trees.
for some time, then it is born up to the surface, contrary to nature, since like any waterlogged object, it should have remained at the bottom, held down by the weight of the water. It is said that when old people eat figs frequently, their wrinkled skin fills out. They say, too, that if you gather the fiercest bulls at the foot of a fig tree, they suddenly become docile.
Again of trees
The mulberry tree is called morus by Greeks; in Latin it is called rubus, because its fruit or its branches are red in colour. There is a wild species which bears fruit, which shepherds in the wilderness use to assuage their hunger and need. It is said that if you throw its leaves on a snake, you will kill it.
Again of trees
The sycamore, sicomorus, like morus, has a Greek name. It is so called because its leaf is like that of a mulberry tree. In Latin it is called celsa, from its height, because it is not short like the mulberry.
The nut tree, nux, is so called because its shadow or the moisture that drips from its leaves does harm, nocere, to neighbouring trees; it has another Latin name, juglans, 'Jove's nut tree', so to speak, for this tree was consecrated by name to Jupiter. Its fruit is so strong that, set amid dishes of vegetables or mushrooms thought to be poisonous, it expels their poison in liquid form, draws it off and renders it harmless.
Again of nut trees
The word 'nuts', nuces, is generally applied to all fruit with a fairly hard shell like pine nuts, filberts, chestnuts and almonds. For this reason they are also called nuclei, because they are covered with a hard shell. In contrast, however, all fruit with soft skins are called mala, adding the place where they originated, like Persica, from Persia, a peach; Punica, from Carthage, a pomegranate; Mattiniana, Matian, a crab-apple.
The word for almond, amigdala, is Greek; in Latin it is nux longa, 'long nut'. For of all trees, the almond is the first to blossom and produces its fruit before other trees.
In Latin the chestnut, castanea, is called by its Greek name. It is so called because its twin fruits are concealed within a pod like testicles. When they are expelled from the pod, it is as if they were castrated. As soon as this tree is felled, it grows again, just like woodland trees.
Again