ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, II. ii. 2-4 



fir fir Aleppo pine, and in general all those that bear 

 cones : also the date-palm, except that in Babylon it 

 may be that, as some say, they take cuttings ^ from 

 it. The cypress in most regions grows from seed, 

 but in Crete ^ from the trunk also, for instance in ^ 

 the hill country about Tarra ; for there grows the 

 cypress which they clip, and when cut it shoots in 

 every p>ossible way, from the part which has been cut, 

 from the groxmd, from the middle, and from the 

 upper parts ; and occasionally, but rarely, it shoots 

 from the roots also. 



About the oak accounts differ ; some say it only 

 grows from seed, some from the root also, but not 

 vigorously, others again that it grows from the trunk 

 itself, when this is cut. But no tree grows from a 

 piece torn off or from a root except those which 

 make side-growths. 



However in all the trees which have several 

 methods of originating the quickest method and that 

 which promotes the most vigorous growth is from a 

 ])iece torn off, or still better from a sucker, if this is 

 taken from the root. And, while all the trees which 

 are propagated thus or by some kind of slip * seem to 

 be alike in their fruits to the original tree, those raised 

 from the fruit, where this method of growing is also 

 jK)ssible, are nearly all inferior, while some quite lose 

 ihe character of their kind, as vine apple fig pome- 

 granate pear. As for the fig,^ no cultivated kind is 

 raised from its seed, but either the ordinary wild fig 

 or some wild kind is the result, and this often 

 differs in colour from the parent ; a black fig gives a 



^ (pvrevTTipiov : a general term including vapa^vas and 

 T-opaffxaj. 



* c/. C.P.I. 9. 



Ill 



