ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xm. 4-6 



lived of trees, is that, instead of producing new 

 roots, it always renews itself from the existing ones, 1 

 such an illustration must surely lead to an absurd con- 

 clusion, 2 unless 3 we assume that the stock persists, 

 as it must do, since it is, as it were, the fundamental 

 and essential part of a tree. However it cannot 

 matter much for our present purpose which account 

 is the right one. Perhaps we may say that the 

 longest-lived tree is that which in all ways is able to 

 persist, 4 as does the olive by its trunk, by its power 

 of developing sidegrowth, and by the fact that its 

 roots are so hard to destroy. It appears that tnc 

 life of the individual olive (in regard to which one 

 should make the trunk the essential part and standard 6 

 in estimating the time), lasts for about two hundred 

 years. 6 But if it is true of the vine, as some say, that, 

 if the roots are partly removed, the trunk is able to 

 survive, and the whole character of the tree remains 

 the same and produces like fruits for any period, 

 however long, then the vine will be the longest-lived 

 of all trees. They say that, when the vine seems to 

 be deteriorating, this is what one should do : one 

 should encourage the growth of branches and gather 

 the fruit that year ; and after that one should dig on 

 one side of the vine and prune away all the roots on 

 that side, and then fill the hole with brushwood and 

 heap up the soil. In that year, they say, the vine 

 bears very badly, but better in the next, while in the 



3 I have inserted /J.T), which G seems to have read. 



4 avrapKelv U, cf. Ar. Eq. 540 ; avrapKelv Aid. 



6 nad' t>v rb ffTf\fX os ^ e * T V o-pxriv TiQfVTa I conj. ; SO G ; 

 K0.9' by ffT\exos fjSrj TV apxV T0eVra fterpov Ald.H. ; ei 

 Set for f)5r) U; /ra#' f> TOV ffT(\X ovs ^ 6 * T\>V OJKOV riOevTa fj.frpov 

 conj. W. ; Ka.6' t>v rb ar. ^877 apxV KCI ^ p-fTpov xpb conj. Sch. 

 cf. end of 4. Plin. 16. 241. 



389 



