Chap. 58.] nOW TEEES GROW SPONTANEOUSLY. 395 



case with the plane, which, from the density of its branches, 

 presents a remarkably broad surface to the wind : when this 

 happens, the branches are cut off, and the tree, thus lightened, 

 is replaced in its furrow : this, too, has also been done before 

 now with the walnut, the olive, and many others. 



(32.) We have many instances cited also of trees falling to 

 the ground without there being any storm or other perceptible 

 cause, but merely by way of portentous omen, and then rising 

 again of themselves. A prodigy of this nature happened to 

 the citizens of Home during their wars with the Cimbri : at 

 jSTuceria, in the grove consecrated to Juno, an elm inclined 

 to such a degree, even after the top had been cut off, as 

 to overhang the altar there, but it afterwards recovered itself 

 to such an extent as to blossom immediately : it was from that 

 very moment, too, that the majesty of the Eoman people began 

 to flourish once again after it had been laid low by disaster 

 and defeat. A similar circumstance is said to have taken 

 place also at Philippi, where a willow, which had fallen down, 

 and the top of which had been taken off, rose again ; and at 

 Stagira, in the Museum 68 there, where the same thing occurred 

 to a white poplar; all which events were looked upon as 

 favourable omens. But what is most wonderful of all, is the 

 fact that a plane, at Antandros, resumed its original posi- 

 tion even after its sides had been rough-hewn all round with 

 the adze, 69 and took root again : it was a tree fifteen cubits 

 long, and four ulnse in thickness. 



CHAP. 58. HOW TEEES GEOW SPONTANEOUSLY DIVEESITIES IN 



THEIE NATURE, THE SAME TREES NOT GROWING EVERYWHERE. 



The trees which we owe to Nature are produced in three 

 different ways; spontaneously, by seed sown, or by a slip 

 which throws out a root. Art has multiplied the methods of 

 reproduction, as we shall have occasion to state in its own 

 appropriate Book : 70 at present our sole subject is the operations 

 of Nature, and the manifold and marvellous methods she adopts. 

 The trees, as we have already stated, 71 do not all of them grow 



68 A grove, probably, consecrated to the Muses. 



69 These stories must be regarded as either fables or impostures ; though 

 it is very possible for a tree to survive after the epidermis has been removed 

 with the adze. 



70 See E. xvii. c. 9. 71 In c. 7 of this Book. 



