ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xvni. 10-11 



characteristic, that it regularly puts forth roots from 

 the shoots between the leaves, by means of which 

 it gets a hold of trees and walls, as if these roots 

 were made by nature on purpose. Wherefore also 

 by withdrawing and drinking up the moisture it 

 starves its host, while, if it is cut off below, it is able 

 to survive and live. There are also other not incon- 

 siderable differences in the fruit ; both in the white 

 and in the black kind it is in some cases rather 

 sweet, in others extremely bitter ; in proof whereof 

 birds eat one but not the other. Such are the 

 facts about ivy. 



The smilax 1 is parasitic, 2 but its stem 3 is thorny 

 and has, as it were, straight thorns ; the leaf is ivy- 

 like small and without angles, and makes a callus 4 

 at the junction with the stalk. A peculiarity of 

 it is its conspicuous 5 slender midrib, so to call it, 

 which divides it in two ; also the fact that the 

 thread-like branchings 6 do not start from this, as in 

 other leaves, but are carried in circles round it, 

 starting from the junction of the leaflet with the 

 leaf. And at the joints of the stem 7 and the 

 spaces between the leaves there grows from the 

 same stalk as the leaves a fine spiral tendril. 8 The 

 flower is white and fragrant like a lily 9 The fruit 



deictic, referring to an actual specimen shewn in lecture ? 

 cf. also 4. 7. 1. 



6 8aXT)i|'js Aid.; 5taAei'i|/eis UMV. A mistake probably 

 due to SiaAetyeis below, where it is right. Sid\r)\l/is is the 

 Aristotelian word for a 'division.' 



7 rov KUV\OV ra yovma conj. Sch. ; T}>V KavXbvrbv &TOVOV Aid. 



8 This must be the meaning of iov\us here, qualified by 

 f \tKr6s; but elsewhere it = catkin, cf. 3. 5. 5. 



9 Xflpivov conj. R. Const, from Plin. I.e. olente lilium ; 



UAld. 



279 



