[3212] This statement is fabulous. Goats are apt to injure trees by biting the buds and young shoots. Fabulous as it is, however, Fée remarks that it still obtains credit among the peasantry in France.
[3213] This fabulous story is taken from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. v. c. 25.
[3214] Also from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. cc. 19-20, and De Causis, B. v. c. 22. It is just possible that on some of the branches being torn off by an animal, the tree may have grown with increased vigour.
[3215] In B. xiii. c. [9], and in c. [30] of this Book.
[3217] It must be remembered that ivy is not a parasite, and that it has no suckers to absorb the nutriment of another tree.
[3219] C. Bauhin gives this name to several species of Atriplex. Lacuna was of opinion that the Halimon of Dioscorides was the same as the Viburnum.
[3220] A superstitious belief only, as Fée remarks.
[3221] See B. xix. c. 26.