ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. x. 5-6 



leaves. Some again have reedy leaves, as date-palm 

 doum-palm and such like. But, generally speaking., 

 the leaves of these end in a point ; for reeds galin- 

 gale sedge and the leaves of other marsh plants are 

 of this character. l The leaves of all these are com- 

 pounded of two parts, and the middle is like a keel, 

 placed where in 2 other leaves is a large passage 

 dividing the two halves. Leaves differ also in their 

 shapes ; some are round, as those of peai-, some 

 rather oblong, as those of the apple ; some come to a 

 sharp point and have spinous projections 3 at the 

 side, as those of smilax. So far I have spoken ot 

 undivided leaves ; but some are divided 4 and like 

 a saw, as those of silver-fir and of fern. To a 

 certain extent those of the vine are also divided, 

 while those of the fig one might compare to a crow's 

 foot. 5 6 Some leaves again have notches, as those of 

 elm filbert and oak, others have spinous projections 

 both at the tip and at the edges, as those of kermes- 

 oak oak smilax bramble Christ's thorn and others. 

 The leaf of fir Aleppo pine silver-fir and also of prickly 

 cedar and kedris (juniper) 7 has a spinous point at 

 the tip. Among other trees there is none that we 

 know which has spines for leaves altogether, but it 

 is so with other woody plants, as akorna drypis pine- 

 thistle and almost all the plants which belong to 

 that class. 8 For in all these spines, as it were, take 

 the place of leaves, and, if one is not to reckon these 



5 KopuvoTro$<*>8r) conj. Gesner. The fig-leaf is compared to a 

 crow's foot, Plut. de defect, orac. 3 ; ffKoXoir&tiri Aid. , which 

 word is applied to thorns by Diosc. 6 Plin. 16. 90. 



7 KfSpiSos conj. Dalec. ; KeSpias MSS. cf. Plin. I.e., who 

 seems to have read aypias. 



8 a/fofwSwv conj. W., cf. 1. 13. 3; a.KO.vGwwv MSS.; Q.KOLV- 



73 



P 2 . 



