Chap. 42.] IN WHAT ORDER TREES BLOSSOM. 383 



ing of the fruit. Some trees blossom while they are budding, 

 and pass rapidly through that period ; but the fruit is slow in 

 coming to maturity, as in the vine, for instance. Other trees, 

 again, blossom and bud but late, while the fruit comes to 

 maturity with great rapidity, the mulberry, 90 for example, 

 which is the very last to bud of all the cultivated trees, and 

 then only when the cold weather is gone : for this reason 

 it has been pronounced the wisest among the trees. But in 

 this, the germination, when it has once begun, bursts forth all 

 over the tree at the very same moment ; so much so, indeed, 

 that it is accomplished in a single night, and even with a 

 noise that may be audibly heard. 91 



CHAP. 42. IN" WHAT ORDER THE TREES BLOSSOM. 



Of the trees which, as we have already stated, 92 bud in win- 

 ter at the rising of the Eagle, the almond blossoms the first 

 of all, in the month of January 93 namely, while by March the 

 fruit is well developed. Next to it in blossoming is the plum 9i 

 of Armenia, and then the tuber and the early peach, 95 the first 

 two being exotics, and the latter forced by the agency of culti- 

 vation. Among the forest trees, the first that blossoms in. the 

 course of nature is the elder, 96 which has the most pith of any, 

 and the male cornel, which has none 97 at all. Among the 

 cultivated trees we next have the apple, and immediately after 

 — so much so, indeed, that it would almost appear that they 

 blossom simultaneously — the pear, the cherry, and the plum. 

 ISfext to these is the laurel, and then the cypress, and after 

 that the pomegranate and the fig : the vine, too, and the olive 

 are budding when these last trees are in flower, the period of 

 their conception 98 being the rising of the Vergiliae," that being 



90 See B. xviii. c. 67. What Pliuy says here is in general true, though 

 its germination does not take place with such rapidity as he states. 



91 A mere fahle, of course. 9i In the last Chapter. 



93 In Paris, Fee says, the almond does not blossom till March. If the 

 tree should blossom too soon, it is often at the expense of the fruit. 



94 Probably the apricot. See B. xv. c. 12. 



95 See B. xv. c. 11. 9 « See B. xxiv. c. 8. 



97 This, of course, is not the fact. As to the succeeding statements, 

 they are borrowed mostly from Theophrastus, and are in general correci. 

 ys The rising of the sap. 

 99 The Pleiades. See B. xviiL cc. 59, 60. 



