ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xvm. 2-4 



1 Thus of buckthorn there is the black and the 

 white form, and there is difference in the fruit, 

 though both bear thorns. 



Of the withy there is a black and a white form ; 

 the flower and fruit of each respectively correspond 

 in colour to the name ; but some specimens are, as 

 it were, intermediate, the flower being purplish, and 

 neither wine-coloured nor whitish as in the others. 

 The leaves in the white kind are also slenderer and 

 smoother, as also are the branches. 



There is variation also in the Christ's thorn . . . 2 

 all these forms are fruit-bearing. Christ's thorn has 

 its fruit in a sort of pod, resembling a leaf, 3 which 

 contains three or four seeds. Doctors bruise 4 them 

 and use them against coughs ; for they have a certain 

 viscous and oily character, like linseed. The shrub 

 grows in wet and dry places alike, like the bramble. 6 

 But it is deciduous, and not evergreen like buckthorn. 



Of the bramble again there are several kinds, 

 shewing very great variation ; one is erect and tall, 

 another runs along the ground and from the first 

 bends downwards, and, when it touches the earth, it 

 roots again ; this some call the l ground bramble.' 

 The ' dog's bramble ' (wild rose) has a reddish fruit, 

 like that of the pomegranate 6 ; and, like the pome- 

 granate, it is intermediate between a shrub and a 

 tree ; but the leaf is spinous. 7 



4 K^TTTovrej : for the tense cf. 3. 17. 2, Trpo^f^xovras. 



5 oi/x . irdpvSpov probably a gloss, W. 



^aiT UMV (?) Aid.; o8a?s conj. Sch. from Plin. 16. 180. 

 Athen. (2. 82) cites the passage with Trapair. TTJ poia. The 

 Schol. on Theocr. 5. 92 seems to have traces of both readings. 



7 aKuvOwSfs conj. Sch. from Schol. on Theocr. (see last note), 

 which quotes the passage with a/cavflcDSej ; ayvwtits UAld.; so 

 also Athen. I.e. Plin. (24. 121) seems to have read Ix^wSes 

 (vestigio hominis simile). 



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