ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. iv. 1-2 



the appearance itself 1 of the plant. I mean differences 

 such as those in size, hardness, smoothness or their 

 opposites, as seen in bark, leaves, and the other 

 parts ; also, in general, differences as to comeliness 

 or its opposite and as to the production of good or ot 

 inferior fruit. For the wild kinds appear to bear 

 more fruit, for instance, the wild pear and wild olive, 

 but the cultivated plants better fruit, having even 

 flavours which are sweeter and pleasanter and in 

 general better blended, if one may so say. 



These then as has been said, are differences of 

 natural character, as it were, and still more so are 

 those between fruitless and fruitful, deciduous and 

 evergreen plants, and the like. But with all the 

 differences in all these cases we must take into 

 account the locality, 2 arid indeed it is hardly possible 

 to do otherwise. Such 3 differences would seem to 

 give us a kind of division into classes, for instance, 

 between that of aquatic plants and that of plants of 

 the dry land, corresponding to the division which we 

 make in the case of animals. For there are some 

 plants which cannot live except in wet ; and again 

 these are distinguished from one another by their 

 fondness for different kinds of wetness ; so that some 

 grow in marshes, others in lakes, others in rivers, 

 others even in the sea, smaller ones in our own 

 sea, larger ones in the Red Sea. 4 Some again, one 

 may say, are lovers of very wet places, 5 or plants 

 of the marshes, such as the willow and the plane. 

 Others again cannot live at all 6 in water, but seek 

 out dry places ; and of the smaller sorts there are 

 some that prefer the shore. 



5 i.e. though not actually living in water. 



6 ot5' '6\us conj. W.; iv -rAvrois Ald.H. Minime G. 



3 1 



