ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. vi. 2-4 



wood ; and for this reason the core of these trees can 

 not be bent. Again the core differs in closeness 

 of texture. 1 A membranous core is not common 

 in trees, if indeed it is found at all ; but it is found 

 in shrubby plants and woody plants generally, as in 

 reed ferula and the Jike. Again in some the core is 

 large and conspicuous, as in kermes-oak oak and 

 the other trees mentioned above ; while in others it 

 is less conspicuous, as in olive and box. For in these 

 trees one cannot find it isolated, but, as some say, it 

 is not found in the middle of the stem, being diffused 



y O 



throughout, so that it has no separate place ; and for 

 this reason some trees might be thought to have no 

 core at all ; in fact in the date-palm the wood is 

 alike throughout. 2 



Differences in root. 



8 Again plants differ in their roots, some having 

 many long roots, as fig oak plane ; for the roots of 

 these, if they have room, run to any length. Others 

 again have few roots, as pomegranate and apple, 

 others a single root, as silver-fir and fir ; these have 

 a single root in the sense that they have one long 

 one 4 which runs deep, and a number of small ones 

 branching from this. Even in some of those which 

 have more than a single root the middle root is the 

 largest and goes deep, for instance, in the almond ; 

 in the olive this central root is small, while the 

 others are larger and, as it were, spread out crab- 

 wise. 6 Again the roots of some are mostly stout, of 

 some of various degrees of stoutness, as those of 

 bay and olive ; and of some they are all slender, 

 as those of the vine. Roots also differ in degree 



o 



of smoothness and in density. For the roots of all 



41 



