ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. vn. y-vm. 2 



manured. However manure is not good for all crops ; 

 and further it is beneficial not only to corn and the 

 like but to most other things, except fern, 1 which 

 they say it destroys if it is put on. (Fern is also 

 destroyed if sheep lie on it, and, as some say, lucerne 

 is destroyed by their dung and urine.) 



Of different qualities of seed. 



VIII. There is a particular kind of soil 2 which best 

 suits each kind of seed, whether we compare one 

 class with another or those of the same class ; and 

 attempts are made to distinguish these. 3 Foreign 

 seeds change into the native sorts in about three 

 years. It is well that they should be imported from 

 a warm climate to one that is rather less warm, or 

 from a cold one 4 to one that is rather less cold. 

 Those imported from a wintry climate, if they be 

 those of early crops, are late in coming into ear, 5 so 

 that they get destroyed by drought unless rain late 

 in the season saves them. Wherefore they say that 

 one should take good heed not to mix foreign with 

 native seeds, unless they come from a similar place, 

 since 6 they do not agree with the soil 7 as to the 

 time of being sown and of germinating, and ac- 

 cordingly need different cultivation ; and so that one 

 should take good heed to the differences of soil, 

 the properties of the seed, and further the seasons 

 appropriate to each. 



When however there is a good season, the grain 

 also is fuller. 8 For instance at Athens the barley pro- 



6 tri conj. Sch.; tn UMAld. 



7 x^P? conj. Sch.; 8>pq UMAld. 



8 iro\vvo<rr6Tpa : cf. v6<TTi/j.os, C.P. 4. 13. 2, Geop. 2. 16. 1, 

 and other reff. in Sch. 'a exhaustive note. 



191 



