ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. in. 3-5 



a good many of its branches untouched, since it is by 

 nature like a shrub. Again neither the apple nor the 

 pomegranate nor the pear would seem to be a tree of 

 a single stem, nor indeed any of the trees which have 

 side stems from the roots, but they acquire the char- 

 acter of a tree when the other stems are removed. 

 However some trees men even leave with their 

 numerous stems because of their slenderness, for in- 

 stance, the pomegranate and the apple, and they 

 leave the steins of the olive and the fig cut short. 1 



Exact classification impracticable: other 2 } ossible bases oj 



classification. 



Indeed it might be suggested that we should 

 classify in some cases simply by size, and in some 

 cases by comparative robustness or length of life. 

 For of under-shrubs and those of the pot-herb 

 class some have only one stem and come as it were 

 to have the character of a tree, such as cabbage 2 

 and rue : wherefore some call these ' tree-herbs'; and 

 in fact all or most of the pot-herb class, when 

 they have been long in the ground, acquire a sort 

 of branches, and the whole plant comes to have a 

 tree-like shape, though it is shorter lived than a tree. 



For these reasons then, as we are saying, one 

 must not make a too precise definition ; we should 

 make our definitions typical. For we must make 

 our distinctions too on the same principle, as 

 those between wild and cultivated plants, fruit- 

 bearing and fruitless, flowering and flowerless, 

 evergreen and deciduous. Thus the distinction 

 between wild and cultivated seems to be due 

 simply to cultivation, since, as Hippon 3 remarks, 

 any plant may be either 4 wild or cultivated ac- 

 cording as it receives or 5 does not receive attention. 



27 



