ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. i. 3-4 



support of our argument, since even among animals 

 those that are with young are at their best. 1 ) 



Again many plants shed their parts every year, 

 even as stags shed their horns, birds which hiber- 

 nate 2 their feathers, four-footed beasts their hair : 

 so that it is not strange that the parts of plants 

 should not be permanent, especially as what thus 

 occurs in animals and the shedding of leaves in 

 plants are analogous processes. 



In like manner the parts concerned with repro- 

 duction are not permanent in plants ; for even 

 in animals there are things which are separated 

 from the parent when the young is born, and 

 there are other things 3 which are cleansed away, 

 as though neither of these belonged to the animal's 

 essential nature. And so too it appears to be with 

 the growth of plants ; for of course growth leads up 

 to reproduction as the completion of the process. 4 



And in general, as we have said, we must not assume 

 that in all respects there is complete correspondence 

 between plants and animals. And that is why the 

 number also of parts is indeterminate ; for a plant has 

 the power of growth in all its parts, inasmuch as it 

 has life in all its parts. Wherefore we should assume 

 the truth to be as I have said, not only in regard to 

 the matters now before us, but in view also of those 

 which will come before us presently ; for it is waste 

 of time to take great pains to make comparisons 

 where that is impossible, and in so doing we may 

 lose sight also of our proper subject of enquiry. 

 The enquiry into plants, to put it generally, may 



3 i.e. the embryo is not the only thing derived from the 

 parent animal which is not a ' part' of it ; there is also the 

 food-supply produced with the young, and the after-birth. 



cf. C.P. 1. 11. 8. 



7 



