ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, II. in. 1-3 



may change into a black one, and conversely ; and 

 similar changes occur in 1 the vine. 



Now these changes they interpret as miraculous 

 and contrary to nature ; but they do not even feel 

 any surprise at the ordinary changes, for instance, 

 when the ' smoky ' vine, 2 as it is called, produces 

 alike white grapes instead of black or black grapes 

 instead of white. Of such changes the soothsayers 

 take no account, any more than they do of those 

 instances in which the soil produces a natural change, 

 as was said 3 of the pomegranate in Egypt. But it is 

 surprising when such a change occurs in our own 

 country, because there are only one or two instances 

 and these separated by wide intervals of time. How- 

 ever, if such changes occur, it is natural 4 that the 

 variation should be rather in the fruit than in the tree 

 as a whole. In fact the following irregularity also 

 occurs in fruits ; a fig-tree has been known to produce 

 its figs from behind the leaves, 5 pomegranate and 

 vines from the stem, while the vine has been known 

 to bear fruit without leaves. The olive again has 

 been known to lose its leaves and yet produce its 

 fruit ; this is said to have happened to Thettalos, 

 son of Pisistratus. This may be due to inclement 

 weather ; and some changes, which seem to be 

 abnormal, but are not really so, are due to other 

 accidental causes ; 6 for instance, there was an olive 

 that, after being completely burnt down, sprang up 

 again entire, the tree and all its branches. And in 

 Boeotia an olive whose young shoots 7 had been eaten 

 off by locusts grew again : in this case however 8 the 



8 cf. Hdt. 8. 55 ; Plin. 17. 241. 



7 epvwv conj. Sch. ; fpyav P 2 Ald. ; jcXaSwi/ mU. 



8 i.e. the portent was not so great as in the other case 

 quoted, as the tree itself had not been destroyed. 



121 



