Timber for house-building,[1020] the choice of which was regulated by law,[1021] abounded in most parts of Greece, though the best and straightest was obtained from Macedonia and Arcadia,[1022] particularly from a hollow valley near a place called Cranè, never visited by the sun, and fenced round by rocks on all sides from the winds.[1023] Very particular rules were laid down respecting the time and manner of felling trees;[1024] first, wood cut in spring was most easily barked; second, if this operation was neglected it bred worms, which furrowed its whole surface like written characters; third, such as was cut when the moon was below the horizon was thought harder and less liable to decay.[1025] It may here, perhaps, be worth observing, that stones and other substances were often found grown into the trunks of wild olive-trees. This was particularly the case with that which grew in the market-place of Megara. The oracle had foretold, that when this tree should be cut down the city would be sacked and destroyed, which was brought to pass by Demetrius. On this occasion the tree being felled and sawed into planks, greaves and other articles of Athenian workmanship were found in the heart of it.[1026] Fragments of the timber remained in the time of Theophrastus. ----- Footnote 1020: Among the frailest dwellings of mankind, with the exception perhaps of the paper houses of the Japanese, we may mention those of the Nasamones described by Herodotus, composed of the stems of the asphodel intertwisted with rushes: οἰκήματα δὲ σύμπηκτα ἐξ ἀνθερίκων ἐνερμένων περὶ σχοίνους ἐστὶ, καὶ ταῦτα περιφορητά. iv. 190. Cf. v. 101. Footnote 1021: Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 55. Footnote 1022: Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 1. Footnote 1023: Id. iv. 1. 2. Footnote 1024: See a curious figure of the axe, Mus. Chiaramont, pl. 21. Of the time of fruit-bearing in forest trees, see Theoph. Hist. Plant, iii. 4. 4. The same naturalist remarks, that the ilex, in Arcadia, was perpetually covered with acorns, the old ones not falling off till the new ones appeared. The yew and the pine blossom, he observes, a little before midsummer, and the bright yellow flowers of the latter, are extremely beautiful in form. Ib. Footnote 1025: Geopon. i. 6. 4. iii. 1. 2. iii. 10. 4. iii. 15. 3. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 1. 2. Footnote 1026: Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 4. -----