ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. vn. 5-vm. i 



tains flies : but as it develops, it becomes hard, like a 

 small smooth gall. 



Such are the growths which the oak produces as 

 well as its fruit. For as for the fungi x which grow 

 from the roots or beside them, these occur also 

 in other trees. So too with the oak-mistletoe ; 

 for this grows on other trees also. However, apart 

 from that, the oak, as was said, produces more things 

 than any other tree ; and all the more so if, as 

 Hesiod 2 says, it produces honey and even bees; 

 however, the truth appears to be that this honey-like 

 juice comes from the air and settles on this more 

 than on other trees. They say also that, when the 

 oak is burnt, nitre is produced from it. Such are 

 the things peculiar to the oak. 



Of ' male ' and 'female. ' in trees : the oak as an example of 

 this and other differences. 



VIII. 3 Taking, as was said, all trees according to 

 their kinds, w r e find a number of differences. Com- 

 mon to them all is that by which men distinguish 

 the ' male 'and the ' female,' the latter being fruit- 

 bearing, the former barren in some kinds. In those 

 kinds in which both forms are fruit-bearing the 

 ' female ' has fairer and more abundant fruit ; how- 

 ever some call these the ' male ' trees for there 

 are those who actually thus invert the names. 

 This difference is of the same character as that 

 which distinguishes the cultivated from the wild tree, 

 while other differences distinguish different forms of 

 the same kind ; and these we must discuss, 4 at the 

 same time indicating the peculiar forms, where these 

 are not 5 obvious and easy to recognise. 



5 /iij conj. St.; /djre Ald.H. 



203 



