Cbap. 21] TREES PROPAGATED PROM LAYERS. 475 



being so called from the weight of oil that they produce each 

 year? Hence it is that Mago has prescribed an interval be- 

 tween these trees of no less than seventy-five feet every way, 

 or of forty-five at the very lowest, when the soil happens to be 

 meagre, hard, and exposed to the winds. There is no doubt, 

 however, that Ba?tica reaps the most prolific harvests from 

 between her olives. 



It will be generally agreed that it is a most disgraceful 

 piece of ignorance to lop away the branches more than is ab- 

 solutelv necessary in trees of vigorous growth, and so preci- 

 pitate old age ; as also, on the other hand, what is generally tan- 

 tamount to an avowal of unskilfulness on the part of those 

 who have planted them, to have to cut them down altogether. 

 Nothing can reflect greater disgrace upon agriculturists than 

 to have to undo what they have done, and it is therefore much 

 the best to commit an error in leaving a superfluity of room. 



CHAP. 20. (13.)— TREES WHICH GROW BUT SLOWLY: THOSE WHICH 

 GROW WITH RAPIDITY. 



Some trees are naturally slow in their growth ; and those 

 in particular which grow solely from seed 97 and are long-lived. 

 On the other hand, those that are short-lived grow with great 

 rapidity, such as the fig, pomegranate, plum, apple, pear, 

 myrtle, and willow, for instance ; and yet these^ are the very 

 first to display their productions, for they begin to bear at 

 three years old, and make some show of it even before that 

 period. The pear is the slowest in bearing of all the trees 

 above enumerated. The cypirus, 98 however, and the shrub 

 known as the pseudo- cypirus" are the earliest in coming to 

 maturity, for they flower almost immediately, and then produce 

 their seed. All trees will come to maturity more rapidly when 

 the suckers are removed, and the nutrimental juices are thrown 

 into the stock only. 



CHAP. 21. — TREES PROPAGATED FROM LAYERS. 



Nature- too, has taught us the art of reproduction from 

 layers. The bramble, by reason of its thinness and the exees- 



9 7 Virgil, Georg. ii. 57, makes the same remark. 

 ^ This shrub has not been identified. 

 »9 See B. xii. c. 26. 



