ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. vi. 4-6 



plants are less dense than the parts above ground, 

 but the density varies in different kinds, as also does 

 the woodiness. Some are fibrous, as those of the 

 silver-fir, some fleshier, as those of the oak, some are 

 as it were branched and tassel-like, as those of the 

 olive ; and this is because they have a large number 

 of fine small roots close together ; for all in fact pro- 

 duce these from their large roots, but the}' are not 

 so closely matted nor so numerous in some cases as 

 in others. 



Again some plants are dee|>rooting, as the oak, 

 and some have surface roots, as olive pomegranate 

 apple cypress. Again some roots are straight and 

 imiform, others crooked and crossing one another. 

 For this comes to pass not merely on account of the 

 situation because they cannot find a straight course ; 

 it may also belong to the natural character of the 

 plant, as in the bay and the olive ; while the fig and 

 such like become crooked because they can not find 

 a straight course. 



All roots have core, just as the stems and branches 

 do, Avhich is to be expected, as all these parts are 

 made of the same materials. Some roots again have 

 side-growths shooting upwards, as those of the vine 

 find pomegranate, while some have no side-growth, 

 as those of silver-fir cvpress and fir. The same 

 cHfferences are found in imder-shrubs and herbaceous 

 j)lants and the rest, except that some have no roots 

 at all, as truffle mushroom buUfist ^ ' thunder-truffle.' 

 (3thers have numerous roots, as wheat one-seeded 

 "ivheat barley and all plants of like nature, for 

 instance,- .... Some have few roots, as legu- 

 minous plants. ° And in general most of the pot- 

 lierbs have single roots, as cabbage beet celery 



43 



