Chap. 35.] GEOWTH OF PLANTS. 1 ']'J 



CHAP. 35. (7.) THE NUMBER OF DAYS EEQT7IRED FOR THE RE- 

 SPECTIVE PLANTS TO MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE ABOVE GROUND. 



Among the garden'^ plants which make their appearance 

 most speedily above ground, are ocimum, blite, the turnip, and 

 rocket ; for they appear above the surface the third day after 

 they are sown. Anise, again, comes up on the fourth day, the 

 lettuce on the fifth, the radish on the sixth, the cucumber and 

 the gourd on the seventh — the cucumber rather the first of the 

 two — cresses and mustard on the fifth, beet on the sixth day 

 in summer and the tenth in winter, orage on the eighth, onions 

 on the nineteenth or twentieth, and scallions on the tenth 

 or twelfth. Coriander, again, is more stubborn in its growth, 

 cunila and wild marjoram do not appear till after the thirtieth 

 day, and parsley comes up with the greatest difficulty of all, 

 for at the very earliest it is forty days before it shows itself, 

 and in most instances as much as fifty. 



The age,'^^ too, of the seed is of some importance in this re- 

 spect ; for fresh seed comes up more rapidly in the case of the 

 leek, the scallion, the cucumber, and the gourd, while in that 

 of parsley, beet, cardaraum, cunila, wild marjoram, and co- 

 riander, seed that has been kept for some time is the best. 



There is one remarkable circumstance '^ in connection with 

 the seed of beet ; it does not all germinate in the first year, but 

 some of it in the second, and some in the third even ; hence 

 it is that a considerable quantity of seed produces only a very 

 moderate crop. Some plants produce only in the year in which 

 they are set, and some, again, for successive j^ears, parsley, 

 leeks, and scallions"^ for instance ; indeed, these plants, when 

 once sown, retain their fertilitj-, and produce for many years. 



'6 The whole nearly of this Chapter is borrowed from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. vii. cc! 1 and '2. It must be borne in mind that what the 

 Romans called the ''third" day would with ns be the "second," and so 

 on ; as in reckoning, they included the day reckoned from, as well as the 

 day reckoned to. 



'7 Fee remarks, that most of the observations made in this Chapter are 

 well founded. 



"^^ This statement, Fee remarks, is entirely a fiction, it beini^ impos- 

 sible for seed to acquire, the second yeax", a faculty of germinating wtiicb 

 it has not had in the first. 



■'9 This is true, but, as Fee observes, the instances might be greatly 

 extended. 



VOL. IV. « 



