ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, II. iii. 1-3 



mav change into a black one. and conversely ; and 

 similar changes occur in^ the vine. 



Now these changes they interpret as miraculous 

 and contrary to nature ; but they do not even feel 

 any surprise at the ordinary changes, for instance, 

 when the ' smoky ' vine,^ as it is called, produces 

 alike white grapes instead of black or black grapes 

 instead of white. Of such changes the soothsayers 

 t-ake no account, any more than they do of those 

 instances in which the soil produces a natural change, 

 as was said ^ of the pomegranate in Egypt. But it is 

 surprising when such a change occurs in our own 

 country, because there are only one or two instances 

 and these separated by wide intervals of time. How- 

 ever, if such changes occur, it is natural ^ that the 

 variation should be rather in the trait than in the tree 

 as a whole. In fact the following irregularity also 

 occurs in fruits ; a fig-tree has been known to produce 

 i^.s figs from behind the leaves,^ pomegranate and 

 vines from the stem, while the vine has been known 

 to bear fruit ^vithout leaves. The olive again has 

 been known to lose its leaves and yet produce its 

 fruit ; this is said to have happened to Thettalos, 

 son of Pisistratus. This may be due to inclement 

 weather ; and some changes, which seem to be 

 abnormal, but are not really so, are due to other 

 accidental causes ; ^ for instance, there was an olive 

 that, after being completely burnt down, sprang up 

 again entire, the tree and all its branches. And in 

 Boeotia an olive whose young shoots " had been eaten 

 off by locusts grew again : in this case however ^ the 



« c/. Hdt. 8. 55 ; Plin. 17. 241. 

 '' 4pvwv cony Sch. ; ^p-ycov PoAld. ; KXiicavm\J. 

 ® i.e. the portent was not so great as in the other case 

 quoted, as the tree itself bad not been destroyed. 



