ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. xiii. 3-4 



close above the fruit, as vine and olive ; in the latter, 

 when the flowers drop ofF, they are seen to have a 

 hole through them,i and this men take for a sign 

 -whether the tree has blossomed well ; for if the 

 flower is burnt up or sodden, it sheds the fruit along 

 with itself, and so there is no hole through it. The 

 majority of flowers ^ have the fruit-case in the middle 

 of them, or, it may be,^ the flower is on the top of 

 the fruit-case, as in pomegranate apple pear * plum 

 and myrtle, and among under-shrubs, in the rose 

 and in many of the coronary plants. For these have 

 their seeds below, beneath the flower, and this is 

 most obvious in the rose because of the size of the 

 seed-vessel. In some cases ^ again the flower is on 

 top of the actual seeds,"^ as in pine-thistle " safllower 

 and all thistle-like ^ plants ; for these have a flower 

 attached to each seed. So too with some herba- 

 ceous plants, as anthemon, and among pot-herbs, with 

 cucumber^ gourd and bottle-gourd; all these have 

 their flowers attached on top of the fruits,^'' and the 

 flowers persist for a long time while the fruits are 

 developing. 



In some other plants the attachment is peculiar, 

 as in ivv and mulberry ; in these the flower is closely 

 attached to the whole ^^ fruit-case ; it is not however 

 set above it, nor in a seed-vessel that envelops each''^ 

 separately, but it occurs in the middle part of the 

 structure — except that in some cases it is not easily 

 recognised because it is downy. 



13 Again some flowers are sterile, as in cucumbers 

 those which grow at the ends of the shoot, and that 



* T6 a'lKvos conj. W. ; oirep aixvos UM ; 6 TrepaiKvos Aid. 

 ^° KapirSiv eonj. Sch. ; &Kpa>v Ald.H. 

 " i.e. compound. ^- ovt' exl I conj. for oin-i. 



i=* cf. Arist. Probl. 20. 3. 



93 



