426Fruit trees too, as soon as they have felt their trunks grow sturdy and have gained their own strength, strive swiftly towards the stars by their own force, needing no help from us. 429No less, meanwhile, every grove grows heavy with fruit, and the untilled haunts of birds glow red with blood-red berries. 431Tree-medick is cropped, the tall forest supplies pine-torches, and the night fires are fed and pour forth light. 433And do men hesitate to plant and to spend care? Why should I pursue greater things? — willows and lowly brooms furnish either leaves for the flock or shade for the shepherds, a hedge for crops and food for honey — and it is a joy to gaze on Cytorus waving with boxwood and on groves of Narycian pitch, a joy to see fields beholden to no rakes, to no care of men.
440Even the barren forests on the peak of Caucasus, which the fierce east winds constantly break and sweep away, give their various products, give useful timber: pines for ships, cedars and cypresses for houses. 444From these farmers have turned spokes for wheels, from these drums for wagons, and have laid curved keels for boats; willows are fruitful in osiers, elms in leaves, but the myrtle in strong spear-shafts, and the cornel is good for war; yews are bent into Ituraean bows. 449Nor do smooth limes or boxwood polished on the lathe fail to take shape and be hollowed by the sharp steel. 451So too the light alder swims the rushing wave, launched on the Po; 452so too bees hide their swarms in hollow bark and in the belly of a rotten holm-oak.
454What have the gifts of Bacchus borne so worthy of record? Bacchus has even given occasions for wrongdoing; 455it was he who subdued in death the raging Centaurs, Rhoetus and Pholus, and Hylaeus threatening the Lapiths with a great mixing-bowl.