Midway between the preceding ones and the fruit-trees stands the elm, partaking of the nature of the former in its wood, and being akin to the latter in the friendship which it manifests for the vine.[2395] The Greeks distinguish two varieties of this tree: the mountain[2396] elm, which is the larger of the two, and that of the plains, which is more shrubby. Italy gives the name of “Atinia”[2397] to the more lofty kinds, and gives the preference to those which are of a dry nature and will not grow in damp localities. Another variety is the Gallic elm,[2398] and a third, the Italian,[2399] with leaves lying closer together, and springing in greater numbers from a single stalk. A fourth kind is the wild elm. The Atinia does not produce any samara,[2400] that being the name given to the seed of the elm. All the elms will grow from slips or cuttings, and all of them, with the exception of the Atinia, may be propagated from seed. CHAP. 30. (18.)—THE NATURES OF THE VARIOUS TREES ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCALITIES: THE MOUNTAIN TREES, AND THE TREES OF THE PLAIN. Having now made mention of the more remarkable trees, it remains for me to state some general facts connected with them all. The cedar, the larch, the torch-tree, and the other resinous trees prefer mountainous localities:[2401] the same is the case also with the aquifolia, the box, the holm-oak, the juniper, the terebinth, the poplar, the wild mountain-ash, and the yoke-elm.[2402] On the Apennines there is also found a shrub known as the “cotinus,”[2403] famous for imparting to cloth a purple colour like that of the murex. The fir, the robur, the chesnut, the lime, the holm-oak, and the cornel will grow equally well on mountain or in valley; while the maple,[2404] the ash, the service, the linden, and the cherry, more particularly prefer a watery spot on the slope of a hilly declivity. It is not often that we see the plum, the pomegranate, the olive, the walnut, the mulberry, or the elder, growing on an elevated site: the cornel, too, the hazel, the quercus, the wild ash, the maple, the ash, the beech, and the yoke-elm, descend to the plains; while the elm, the apple, the pear, the laurel, the myrtle, the blood-red[2405] shrub, the holm-oak, and the brooms[2406] that are employed in dyeing cloths, all of them aspire to a more elevated locality.