ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xiv. 2-4 



have worms, but some less, as fig and apple, some 

 more, as pear. Speaking generally, those least liable 

 to be worm-eaten are those which have a bitter 

 acrid 1 juice, and these are also less liable to sun- 

 scorch. Moreover this occurs more commonly in 

 young trees than in those which have come to their 

 strength, and most of all it occurs in the fig and the 

 vine. 



The olive, in addition to having worms (which 

 destroy the fig too by breeding in it), produces also 

 a f knot ' (which some call a fungus, others a bark- 

 blister 2 ), and it resembles the effect of sun-scorch. 3 

 Also sometimes young olives are destroyed by exces- 

 sive fruitfulness. The fig is also liable to scab, and 

 to snails which cling to it. However this does not 

 happen to figs everywhere, but it appears that, as 

 with animals, diseases are dependent on local con- 

 ditions ; for in some parts, as about Aineia, 4 the figs 

 do not get scab. 



The fig is also often a victim to rot and to 

 krados. It is called rot when the roots turn black, 

 it is called krados when the branches do so ; for 

 some call the branches kradoi b (instead of kladoi}, 

 whence the name is transferred to the disease. The 

 wild fig does not suffer from krados rot or scab, nor 

 does it get so worm-eaten in its roots 6 as the culti- 

 vated tree ; indeed some wild figs do not even shed 

 their early fruit not even if they are grafted 7 into 

 a cultivated tree. 



4 cf. 5. 2. 1. 6 Evidently a dialectic form. 



6 _ (floats PAld. ; GVKCUS W. after conj. of Sch. 



7 lp.(pvTeu6wffiv conj. Sch.; Zvi <f>vr. UMV; evia. <pvr. Aid. 

 Apparently the object of such grafting was the ' caprification ' 

 of the cultivated tree (cf. 2. 8. 3) ; but grafting for this 

 purpose does not seem to be mentioned elsewhere. 



393 



