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



aspect and shew no difference of soil, some bear 

 ' cookable ' some ' uncookable ' seeds, and that some- 

 times when there is only l the breadth of a furrow 

 between them. 



Of the grains and pulses which most exhaust the soil, or which 

 improve it. 



IX. Wheat exhausts the land more than any other 

 crop, and next to it barley ; wherefore the former 

 requires good soil, while barley will bear even on 

 somewhat crumbling soils ; 2 and of leguminous plants 

 chick-pea is the most exhausting, although this crop 

 is in the ground only a very short time. 3 Beans, 

 as was said, 4 are in other ways not a burdensome 

 crop to the ground, they even seem to manure it, 

 because the plant is of loose growth and rots 

 easily ; wherefore the people of Macedonia and 

 Thessaly turn over the ground when it is in 

 flower. 5 



6 Of the plants which resemble wheat or barley 

 such as zeia (rice-wheat) one-seeded wheat olyra 7 

 (rice-wheat) oats aigilops zeia is the strongest 8 and 

 most exhausts the ground ; for it has many roots 

 which run deep and many stems ; but its fruit is the 

 lightest and is welcome to all animals. Of the rest 

 oats 9 is the most exhausting ; for this too has many 

 roots and many stems. Olyra is a more delicate plant 

 and not so robust as these. But one-seeded wheat 

 is the crop which is of all the least burdensome to 

 the soil ; for it has but a single slender stem 10 ; 

 wherefore also it requires a light soil and not, like 



i See Index. 



8 lffx v ftoro.rov conj. W. from Galen ; lcrx v pdT*poi> Aid. 



9 Ppofj-os' iro\vpptos yap conj. Sch.; #. iroA.- nal yap Aid. 

 10 Ko.1 \fTTTOKoi\afjLoi' add. Bod. from Galen. 



199 



