ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. ix. 3-5 



andrachrie arbutus terebinth 'wild bay' (oleander). 

 Andrachne and arbutus seem to cast their lower 

 leaves, but to keep those at the end of the twigs 

 perennially, and to be always adding leafy twigs. 

 These are the trees which are evergreen. 



1 Of shrubby plants these are evergreen : ivy 

 bramble buckthorn reed kcdris (juniper) for there 

 is a small kind of kedros so called which does not 

 grow into a tree. Among under-shrubs and herba- 

 ceous plants there are rue cabbage rose gilliflower 

 southernwood sweet marjoram tufted thyme mar- 

 joram celery alexanders poppy, and a good many 

 more kinds of wild plants However some of these 

 too, while evergreen as to their top growths, shed 



their other leaves, as marjoram and celery 2 



for rue too is injuriously affected and changes its 

 character. 



3 And all the evergreen plants in the other classes 

 too have narrower leaves and a certain glossiness and 

 fragrance. Some moreover which are not evergreen 

 by nature become so because of their position, as 

 was said 4 about the plants at Elephantine and 

 Memphis, while lower down the Nile in the Delta 

 there is but a very short period in which they are not 

 making new leaves. It is said that in Crete 5 in the 

 district of Gortyna there is a plane near a certain 

 spring 6 which does not lose its leaves ; (indeed the 

 story is that it was under 7 this tree that Zeus lay 

 with Europa), while all the other plants in the 

 neighbourhood shed their leaves. 8 At Sybaris there 

 is an oak within sight of the city which does not shed 



6 TTTjyfj conj. H. from G ; aitTivy UMVAld. ; /CTJVT) P 2 ; Kprj^i 

 inBas. 



7 uirb conj. Hemsterhuis ; eVl Aid. 8 Plin. 16. 81. 



65 



