ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. i. 4-7 



spoke, m which are sown millet Italian millet 

 sesame, and also erysimon and horminon. Such then 

 are the times for each. 



Some are quicker in coming up, some slower. 

 Barley and wheat generally come up on the seventh 

 day, but barley is the earlier. Pulses take four 

 or five days, except beans ; for they, like some 

 kinds J of corn, require a longer time ; in some 

 places they take as much as fifteen days, or even 

 twenty. This crop indeed is the slowest to start 

 of all, and if after the sowing there is a long spell of 

 wet weather, it is extremely slow. 2 Whether the 

 sprouting 3 of crops sown at the spring seed-time 

 is quicker because of the season is matter for 

 enquiry. 



These times of sprouting or germination must be 

 taken generally ; for at some times and places 

 germination takes fewer days, as with barley 4 in 

 Egypt, where it is said to come up on the third 

 or fourth day ; while elsewhere it takes longer than 

 the period mentioned, which is not surprising when 

 both soil and climate are different, when one makes 

 the sowing earlier or later, and when the crop is 

 subjected to different influences afterwards. For 

 open light soil with a favourable 5 climate produces 

 quick and easy growth, while soil that is sticky and 

 heavy tends to slow growth, and that of a specially 

 dry district to slower growth still. 



Moreover the time of growth is affected, according 

 as storms supervene, or droughts, or fine weather 

 or again rain ; for these conditions make wide 

 differences. So too it makes a difference if the 



4 K piM) add. W. 



6 fvKpdry conj. Seal, from G (benigno caelo) ; 



L 2 



