16 Greek Biology 



upwards and downwards, and it draws from the soil not only 

 water but more abundantly also substances that are denser and 

 fatter. Warmed, too, by the sun, these act as a ferment to the 

 extremities and give rise to fruit after its kind. The fruit thus 

 develops much from little, for every plant draws from the earth 

 a power more abundant than that with which it started, and 

 the fermentation takes place not at one place but at many.' l 



Nor does our author hesitate to draw an analogy between 

 the plant and the mammalian embryo. ' In the same way the 

 infant lives within its mother's womb and in a state corre- 

 sponding to the health of the mother . . . and you will find 

 a complete similitude between the products of the soil and the 

 products of the womb.' 



The early Greek literature is so scantily provided with 

 illustrations drawn from botanical study, that it is worth con- 

 sidering the remarkable comparison of generation of plants 

 from cuttings with that from seeds in the same work. 



4 As regards plants generated from cuttings . . . that part 

 of a branch where it was cut from a tree is placed in the earth 

 and there rootlets are sent out. This is how it happens : The 

 part of the plant within the soil draws up juices, swells, and 

 develops a pieuma (-nvviJ.a la-\L) 9 but not so the part with- 

 out. The pneuma and the juice concentrate the power of the 

 plant below so that it becomes denser. Then the lower end 

 erupts and gives forth tender roots. Then the plant, taking 

 from below, draws juices from the roots and transmits them 

 to the part above the soil which thus also swells and develops 

 pneuma ; thus the power from being diffused in the plant 

 becomes concentrated and budding, gives forth leaves. . . . 

 Cuttings, then, differ from seeds. With a seed the leaves are 

 borne first, then the roots are sent down ; with a cutting the 

 roots form first and then the leaves.' 2 



But with these works of the early part of the fourth century 

 the first stage of Greek biology reaches its finest development. 



1 Trfpt 0ua-ios TreuSi'ou, On the nature of the embryo, 22. 



2 Ibid, 23- 



