ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xn. 6-8 



iu taste ; the round fruits are generally more fragrant 

 and sweeter, the oval ones are often sour and less 

 fragrant. The leaves in both grow attached to a 

 long fibrous stalk, and project on each side in a row l 

 like the feathers of a bird's wing, the whole forming 

 a single leaf but being divided into lobes with 

 divisions which extend to the rib ; but each pair are 

 some distance apart, 2 and, when the leaves fall, 3 

 these divisions do not drop separately, but the whole 

 wing-like structure drops at once. When the 

 leaves are older and longer, the pairs are more 

 numerous ; in the younger and shorter leaves they 

 are fewer ; but in all at the end of the leaf-stalk there 

 is an extra leaflet, so that the total number of leaflets 

 is an odd number. In form the leaflets resemble 4 

 the leaves of the ' fine-leaved ' bay, except that they 

 are jagged and shorter and do not narrow to a sharp 

 point but to a more rounded end. The flower 5 is 

 Clustering and made up of a number of small white 

 blossoms from a single knob. The fruit too is 

 clustering, when the tree fruits well ; for a number 

 of fruits are formed from the same knob, giving an 

 appearance like a honeycomb. The fruit gets eaten 

 by worms on the tree before it is ripe to a greater 

 extent than that of medlar pear or wild pear, and 

 yet it is much more astringent than any of these. 

 The tree itself also gets worm-eaten, and so withers 

 away as it ages ; and the worm G which infests it is a 

 peculiar one, red and hairy. This tree bears fruit 

 when it is quite young, that is as soon as it is three 

 years old. In autumn, when it has shed its leaves, 

 it immediately produces its winter-bud-like knob, 7 



3 Plin. 16. 92. 4 For construction cf. 3. 11. 3. 



^ i.e. inflorescence. 6 Plin. 17. 221. 7 cf. 3. 5. 5. 



241 



