ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. viii. 5-ix. i 



trees correspond the ' eye ' in the vine, the joint in 



the reed) ^ In some trees again there occurs, 



as it were, a diseased formation of small shoots,"- as 

 in elm oak and especially in the plane ; and this is 

 universal if they grow in rough waterless or windy 

 sj)ots. Apart from any such cause ^ this affection 

 occurs near the ground in what one may call the 

 * head ' of the trunk, when the tree is getting old. 



Some trees agam have what are called by some 

 ' excrescences ' ^ (or something corresponding), as the 

 olive ; for this name belongs most properly to that 

 tree, and it seems most liable to the affection ; and 

 some call it ' stump,' some Arotone,^ others have a 

 different name for it. It does not occur, or only 

 occurs to a less extent, in straight young trees, which 

 have a single root and no side-growths. To the 

 olive ^ also, both wild and cultivated, are peculiar 

 certain thickenings ^ in the stem. 



Aa (o habit. 



IX. ^ Now those trees which grow chiefly or only ^ 

 in the direction of their height are such as silver-fir 

 date-palm cypress, and in general those which have 

 a single stem and not many roots or branches (the 

 date-palm, it may be added, has no side-growths at 

 alP"). And trees like^^ these have also similar growth 

 downwards. Some however divide from the first, 



note about the palm (^o»ri| 5* -rapaB^atTrririKoy) I have omitted 

 as untrue as well as irrelevant ; possibly mth oxapa/3«. for 

 trapaia. it belongs to the next section. 



" ovKir-nras conj. W.; KOiAoTTjras MSS. (?) Aid. 



8 Plin. 16. 125. 



^ IxaXiffT ^ novov conj. W. ; fxaKiffra fiava Ald.H. 



>» See 3. 8. 6. n. 



^^ Sfioia conj. Sch. ; dfxolas MSS. Sense hardly satisfactory. 



6i 



