The opening of XXIV. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FOREST TREES
CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES WHICH EXIST AMONG TREES AND PLANTS.
Not even are the forests and the spots in which the aspect of Nature is most rugged, destitute of their peculiar remedies; for so universally has that divine parent of all things distributed her succours for the benefit of man, as to implant for him medicinal virtues in the trees of the desert even, while at every step she presents us with most wonderful illustrations of those antipathies and sympathies which exist in the vegetable world.
Between the quercus[1] and the olive[2] there exists a hatred so inveterate, that transplanted, either of them, to a site previously occupied by the other, they will die.[3] The quercus too, if planted near the walnut, will perish. There is a mortal feud[4] existing also between the cabbage and the vine; and the cabbage itself, so shunned as it is by the vine, will wither immediately if planted in the vicinity of cyclamen[5] or of origanum.