ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. vn. 2-4 



when, after taking off all the branches, one cuts oH 

 the top, it soon dies ; yet, when one takes off the 

 lower parts, those about the smooth portion of the 

 trunk, what is left survives, and it is on this part 

 that the amphauxis forms. And plainly the reason 

 why the tree survives is that it is sappy and green 

 because it has no side-growths. 1 Now this is peculiar 

 to the silver-fir. 



Of other things borne by trees besides their leaves flowers and 



fruit. 



Now, while other trees bear merely their own 2 

 fruit and the obvious parts which form annually, to 

 wit, leaf flower and bud, some bear also catkins or 

 tendrils, and some produce other things as well, for 

 instance the elm its ' cluster ' and the familiar bag- 

 like thing, 3 the fig both the immature figs which drop 

 off and (in some kinds) the untimely figs 4 though 

 perhaps in a sense 5 these should be reckoned as 

 fruit. Again filbert produces its catkin, 6 kermes-oak 

 its scarlet ' berry/ 7 and bay its ' cluster.' 8 The 

 fruit-bearing sort of bay also produces this, or at all 

 events 9 one kind certainly does so ; however the 

 sterile kind, which some call the ' male,' produces 

 it in greater quantity. The fir again bears its e tuft,' 10 

 which drops off. 



11 The oak however bears more things besides 12 its 

 fruit than any other tree ; as the small gall 13 and its 



6 cf. 3. 3. 8 ; 3. 5. 5. 



7 cf. 3. 16. 1. i.e. the kermes gall (whence Eng. 'crimson'). 



8 frorpvov UMVAld., supported by G. and Plin. 16. 120; 

 but some editors read &pvov on the strength of 3. 11. 4. and 

 G. P. 2. 11. 4. 9 a\\d rot conj. W. ; a\\a K a\ Aid. 



J0 cf. 3. 3. 8 n. " Plin. 16. 28. 



12 Troock conj. W., cf. 6; 4>e>. Aid. 18 cf. 3. 5. 2. 



199 



