ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VI 1. i. 6-8 



leek long onion cucumber gourd ; (some even soak 

 the seed of cucumber first in milk or water, to make 

 it germinate quicker). Some come up quicker from 

 old seed, as celery beet cress savory coriander 

 marjoram (unless indeed they are raised x from fresh 

 seed in the manner 2 which we have mentioned). 

 There is, they say, a singular feature about beet 3 ; 

 the seed does not all germinate at once, but some of 

 it not for some time, some even in the next or in the 

 third year ; wherefore it is said that little comes up 

 from much seed. 



Any of the seeds, if they are ripe when they fall, 

 last till their own proper season and do not sprout 

 till then. And in this they are consistent ; for we 

 note that the same thing happens with the seed of 

 wild plants, unless it is destroyed. However all 

 mature their fruits in the summer, though sooner 

 and quicker, generally speaking, when they are sown 

 earlier. The season also 4 makes a difference ; things 

 sown in the hot season push up their shoots and go 

 to seed sooner, as radish and turnip. Some however 

 bear their fruit not in the same year but in the next, 

 as celery 5 leek long onion, which plants also last 

 a longer time, and are not annual ; for most herbs 

 wither with the ripening of their seed. 



Generally speaking, all those that push up shoots 

 and mature their fruit reach their perfection of form 

 in having side-shoots branching from the main stem 

 except those which have but a single stem, as 

 leek long onion onion garlic. 



All these herbs are lovers of water and of dung, 



3 cf. C.P. 4. 3. 2; Plin. U. 



4 Seconj. W.; yap Aid. H. 

 6 Plin. I.e. 



65 

 VOL. II. F 



