ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. i. 5-11. i 



rain acts in the same way ^ ; for it brings down 

 many of the seeds with it, and at the same time 

 causes a sort of decomposition of the earth and of 

 the water. In fact, the mere mixture of earth with 

 water in Egypt seems to produce a kind of vegeta- 

 tion. And in some places, if the ground is merely 

 lightly worked and stirred, the plants native to the 

 district immediately spring up ; ^ for instance, the 

 cypress in Crete. And something similar to this 

 occurs even in smaller plants ; as soon as the earth 

 is stirred, wherever it may be, a sort of vegetation 

 comes up. And in partly saturated soil, if you 

 break up the ground, they say that caltrop appears. 

 Now these ways of origination are due to the change 

 which takes place in the soil, whether there were 

 seeds in it already, or whether the soil itself some- 

 how produces the result. And the latter explanation 

 is perhaps not strange, seeing that the moist ele- 

 ment is also locked up in the soil.^ Again, in some 

 places they say that after rain a more singular 

 abundance of vegetation has been known to spring 

 up ; for instance, at Cvrene, after a heavy pitchy 

 shower had fallen : for it was under these circum- 

 stances that there sprang up the wood* which is 

 near the town, though till then it did not exist. 

 They say also that silphium^ has been known to 

 appear from some such cause, where there was none 

 before. ^ Such are the ways in which these kinds 

 of generation come about. 



Of the differences bttween icild and adtivated trees. 



II. All trees are either fruit-bearing or without 

 fruit, either evergreen or deciduous, either flowering 

 * c/. 6. 3. • TotovToi MSS. ; rocovrot conj. W. 



165 



