ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. in. 6-8 



growing in the same place as the former, or l quite 

 near it. Take for instance the centaury in Elea; where 

 it grows in hill-country, it is fruitful ; where it grows 

 in the plain, it bears no fruit, but only flowers ; and 

 where it grows in deep valleys, it does not even 

 flower, unless it be scantily. Any way it appears 

 that, even of other plants which are of the same 

 kind and all go by the same name, one will be 

 without fruit, while another bears fruit ; for instance, 

 one kermes-oak will be fruitful, another not ; and the 

 same is true of the alder, though both produce 

 flowers. And, generally speaking, all those of any 

 given kind which are called ' male ' trees are without 

 fruit, and that though 2 some of these, they say, 

 produce many flowers, some few, some none at all. 

 On the other hand they say that in some cases it is 

 only the ' males ' that bear fruit, but that, in spite 

 of this, the trees grow from the flowers, 3 (just as in 

 the case of fruit-bearing trees they grow from the 

 fruit). And they add that in both cases, 4 the crop 

 of seedlings 5 which comes up is sometimes so thick 

 that the woodmen cannot get through except bv 

 clearing a way. 



There is also a doubt about the flower of some 

 trees, as we said. Some think that the oak bears 

 flowers, and also the filbert the chestnut and even 

 the fir and Aleppo pine ; some however think that 

 none of these has a flower, but that, resembling* 5 

 and corresponding to the wild figs which drop off 

 prematurely, we have in the nuts the catkin, 7 in the 



form alone bears fruit, but the fruit is infertile. The passage 

 is obscure : W. gives up the text. 



6 fK$vffiv. c/. 7. 4. 3. 



6 ofjioiov conj.W.; 6fj.oiav UAld. c/. 3. 7. 3. 

 c/. 3. 5. 5. 



177 



