ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. vm. 2-3 



duces more meal than anywhere else, since it is an 

 excellent land for that crop ; and this is so, not 

 merely when a very large crop is sown, but when the 

 weather has been favourable for it. And in Phocis 

 about Elateia the wheats produce half as much meal 

 again as elsewhere ; while at Soli in Cilicia this is true 

 of both wheat and barley ; and in other parts there 

 are other crops for which the soil is severally well 

 adapted. Wherefore grain turns out better or worse 

 because of the soil as well as because of cultivation ; 

 for in some places it changes into the cultivated from 

 the wild form, or the reverse, like trees ; and in 

 general it changes according 1 to the soil in which it 

 is grown, just as some 2 trees, when transplanted, 

 forthwith deteriorate. 



Of degeneration of cereals, and of the weeds which infest 

 particular crops. 



But no kind can change altogether into another, 

 except one-seeded wheat and rice-wheat, 3 as we said 4 

 in our previous discussions, and darnel which comes 

 from degenerate wheat and barley : at least, if this 

 is not the true account, darnel loves chiefly to 

 appear among wheat, as does the Pontic 5 melampyros 

 and the seed of purse-tassels, 6 even as other 

 seeds appear in other crops ; thus aigihps seems to 

 grow for choice among barley, and among lentils 

 the rough hard kind of arakos, while among tares 

 occurs the axe-weed, 7 which resembles an axe-head in 

 appearance. Indeed in the case of nearly every 

 crop there is a plant which grows up with it and 



6 cf. 8. 4. 6, where ^Xa^irvpov was said to be peculiar to 

 Sicily. cf. C.P. 4. 6. 1. 



7 Plin. 18. 155 ; 27. 121 ; Diosc. 3. 130; Hesych. a. 



193 

 VOL. II. O 



