•80 flint's natural history. 



[Book XVI. 



its respective nature: some immediately, as with animals, 

 others, again, more slowly, carrying with them for a longer 

 period the produce of their conception, a state which has from 

 that circumstance obtained the name of " germination." When 

 the plant flowers, it may be said to bring forth, and the flower 

 makes its appearance by bursting its little capsule, which has 

 acted to it as an uterus. The period of training and education 

 is the growth of the fruit. This, as well as that of germina- 

 tion, is a laborious process. 



CHAP. 40. TREKS WHICH NEVER BLOSSOM. THE JUNIPER. 



The appearance of the blossom bespeaks the arrival of the 

 spring and the birth anew of the year ; this blossom is the 

 very pride and delight of the trees. Then it is that they 

 show themselves quite renewed, and altogether different from 

 what they really are ; then it is that they quite revel in the con- 

 test with each other which shall excel in the various hues 

 and tints which they display. This merit has, however, been 

 denied to many of them ; for they do not all blossom, and 

 there are certain sombre trees which do not participate in this 

 joyous season of the year. The holm-oak, the pitch-tree, the 

 larch, and the pine are never bedecked with blossoms, and 

 with them there is no particular forerunner sent forth to an- 

 nounce the yearly birth of their respective fruits. The same 

 is the case, too, with the cultivated and the wild fig, 78 which 

 immediately present their fruit in place of any blossom. Upon 

 the fig, too, it is remarkable that there are abortive fruit to be 

 seen which never ripen. 



The juniper, also, is destitute 79 of blossom ; some writers, 

 however, distinguish two varieties of it, one of which blossoms 

 but bears no fruit, 60 while the other has no blossom, but pre- 

 sents the berries immediately, which remain on the tree 

 for so long a period as two years : this assertion, however, is 



78 This statement, as also that relative to the holm oak, and other trees 

 previously mentioned, is quite incorrect. The blossoms of the fig-tree are 

 very much concealed, however, from view in the involucre of the clinau- 

 thium. 



79 This is not the fact, though the blossom of the juniper is of humble 

 character, and not easily seen. Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 6, ouly says that 

 it is a matter of doubt, what Pliny so positively affirms. 



* This is the fact ; the male tree is sterile, but it fecundates the female. 



