ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. i. 3-5 



down, and others only a flower, such as thyme, young 

 plants nevertheless grow from these. As for the 

 plane, it obviously has seeds, and seedlings grow 

 from them. This is evident in various ways, and 

 here is a very strong proof — a plane-tree has before 

 now been seen which came up in a brass pot. 



Such we must suppose are the ways in which wild 

 trees originate, apart from the spontaneous ways 

 of which natural philosophers tell. ^ Anaxagoras 

 says that the air contains the seeds of all things, 

 and that these, carried down by the rain, produce 

 the plants ; while Diogenes ^ says that this happens 

 when water decomposes and mixes in some sort with 

 earth. ^ Kleidemos maintains that plants are made 

 of the same elements as animals, but that they fall 

 short of being animals in proportion as their com- 

 position is less pure and as they are colder. * And 

 there are other philosophers also who speak of 

 spontaneous generation. 



But this kind of generation is somehow beyond 

 the ken of our senses. There are other admitted 

 and observable kinds, as when a river in flood gets 

 over its banks or has altogether changed its course, 

 even as the Nesos in the district of Abdera often 

 alters its course, and in so doing causes such a 

 growth of forest in that region that by the third 

 year it casts a thick shade. The same result ensues 

 when heavy rains prevail for a long time ; during 

 these too many plants shoot up. Now, as the 

 flooding of a river, it would appear, conveys seeds 

 of fruits of trees, and, as they say, irrigation channels 

 convey the^ seeds of herbaceous plants, so heavy 



Keyovfft . . . yeveaeus apparently a gloss (W. 

 TAconj. W.; rVMAld. 



163 



