ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. xi. 3-6 



and wheat and one kind of barley are gathered 

 before they are dry, because then they are better for 

 meal. 



Wherefore the grain of wheat and barley is put 

 into heaps, and it seems to ripen in a heap rather 

 than to lose substance. 1 (However corn does not 

 get worm-eaten when it is reaped after exposure to 

 rain.) 2 Also corn lasts better than other things if it 

 is left standing, and so does lupin to an even greater 

 extent ; indeed this crop is not even gathered till 

 rain has fallen, 3 because, if it is gathered, the seed 

 springs out arid is lost. 



Of the age at which seeds should be sown. 



4 For propagation and sowing generally seeds one 

 year old seem to be the best; 5 those two or three 

 years old are inferior,, while those kept a still longer 

 time are infertile, though they are still available as 

 food. For each kind has a definite period of life in 

 regard to reproduction. However these seeds too 

 differ in their capacity according to the place in 

 which they are stored. For instance, in Cap- 

 padocia at a place called Petra they say that 

 seed remains even for forty years fertile and fit 

 for sowing, while as food it is available for sixty 

 or seventy years ; for that it does not get worm- 

 eaten at all like clothes and other stored-up articles . 

 for that the region is, apart from this, elevated and 

 always exposed to fair winds and breezes which 

 prevail alike from 6 the east, the west, and the 



3 Trptrepov *} conj. W.; rbv rpoirov UAld. cf. C.P. 4. 13. 3; 

 Plin. 18. 133. 4 Plin. 18. 195. 



6 cf. 7. 5. 5 ; Geop. 2. 1(3. 

 6 air' conj. Sch. ; M P 2 Ald. 



209 

 VOL. ir. p 



