ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xi. 1-3 



floating islands, the stout form in the ' reed-beds ' l ; 

 this name they give to the places where there is a 

 thick mass of reed with its roots entangled together. 

 This occurs in any part of the lake where there is 

 rich soil. It is said that the ' stake-reed ' is also 

 sometimes found in the same places as the reed used 

 for pipes, in which places it is longer than the ' stake- 

 reed' found elsewhere, but gets worm-eaten. These 

 then are the differences in reeds of which they tell. 



As to the reed used for pipes, it is not true, as some 

 say, that it only grows once in nine years and that 

 this is its regular rule of growth ; it grows in general 

 whenever the lake is full : but, because in former 

 days this was supposed to happen generally once in 

 nine years, they made the growth of the reed to 

 correspond, taking what was really an accident to be 

 a regular principle. As a matter of fact it grows 

 whenever after a rainy season the water remains in 

 the lake for at least two years, 2 and it is finer if the 

 water remains longer ; this is specially remembered 

 to have happened in recent times at the time of the 

 battle of Chaeronea. 8 For before that period they 

 told me that the lake was for several years deep * ; 

 and, at a time later than that, when there was a 

 severe visitation of the plague, it filled up ; but, as 

 the water did not remain but failed in winter, the 

 reed did not grow ; for they say, apparently with 

 good reason, that, when the lake is deep, the reed 

 increases in height, and, persisting for the next year, 

 matures its growth ; and that the reed which thus 

 matures is suitable for making a reed mouthpiece, 5 

 while that for which the water has not remained is 



4 ITT; ir\fl<a conj. Seal, from G ; in irAei'w UMV; IT* 

 Aid. 



5 See n. on -rb OTO^O. TWV yXurTuv, 4. 



369 



