10 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



olive fig vine. A shrub is a thing which arises from the root with many 

 branches; for instance, bramble Christ's thorn. An under-shrub is a thing 

 which arises from the root with many stems as well as many branches; for 

 instance, savory rue. A herb is a thing which comes up from the root 

 with its leaves and has no main stem, and the seed is borne on the stem; for 

 instance, corn and pot-herbs. 



These definitions however must be taken and accepted as applying gen- 

 erally and on the whole. For in the case of some plants it might seem that 

 our definitions overlap; and some under cultivation appear to become dif- 

 ferent and depart from their essential nature, for instance, mallow when 

 it grows tall and becomes tree-like. For this comes to pass in no long 

 time, not more than six or seven months, so that in length and thickness the 

 plant becomes as great as a spear, and men accordingly use it as a walking- 

 stick, and after a longer period the result of cultivation is proportionately 

 greater. So too is it with the beets; they also increase in stature under cul- 

 tivation, and still more do chaste-tree Christ's thorn ivy, so that, as is 

 generally admitted, these become trees, and yet they belong to the class 

 of shrubs. On the other hand the myrtle, unless it is pruned, turns into a 

 shrub, and so does filbert: indeed this latter appears to bear better and 

 more abundant fruit if one leaves a good many of its branches untouched, 

 since it is by nature hke a shrub. Again neither the apple nor the pome- 

 granate nor the pear would seem to be a tree of a single stem, nor indeed 

 any of the trees which have side stems from the roots, but they acquire the 

 character of a tree when the other stems are removed. However, some 

 trees men even leave with their numerous stems because of their slender- 

 ness, for instance, the pomegranate and the apple, and they leave the stems 

 of the olive and the fig cut short. 



OF 'male' and 'female' in trees 



Taking all trees according to their kinds, we find a number of differ- 

 ences. Common to them all is that by which men distinguish the 'male' 

 and the 'female,' the latter being fruit-bearing, the former barren in some 

 kinds. In those kinds in which both forms are fruit-bearing, the 'female' 

 has fairer and more abundant fruit; however some call these the male 

 trees — for there are those who actually invert the names. This difference 

 is of the same character which distinguishes the cultivated from the wild 

 tree, while other differences distinguish different forms of the same kind, 



OF THE MEDICINAL USES OF DIVERS PARTS OF PLANTS 



As was said, of some plants the root, fruit and juice are all serviceable, 

 as of all-heal among others; of some the root and the juice, as of scammony 

 cyclamen thapsia and others, such as mandrake; for the leaf of this, they 

 say, used with meal, is useful for wounds, and the root for erysipelas, when 

 scrapped and steeped in vinegar, and also for gout, for sleeplessness, and 



