ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, 111. xvi. 4-6 



^The arbutus, which produces the edible fruit 

 called 7/iemaikylon, is not a very large tree ; its bark is 

 thin and like that of the tamarisk, the leaf is between 

 that of the kemies-oak and that of the bay. It 

 blooms in the month Pyanepsion ~ ; the flowers grow 

 in clusters at the end of the boughs from a single 

 attachment ; in shape each of them is like an oblong 

 myrtle flower and it is of about the same size ; it has 

 no petals, but forms a cup like an empty eggshell,^ 

 and the mouth is open : when the flower drops off", 

 there is a hole* also through the part by which 

 it is attached, and the fallen flower is delicate and 

 like a whorl on a spindle or a Doric kanieios.^ The 

 fruit takes a year to ripen, so that it comes to pass 

 that this and the new flower are on the tree 

 together. 



^ The andrachne has a leaf like that of the arbutus 

 and is not a very large tree ; the bark is smooth ^ 

 and cracked,' the fruit is like that of the arbutus. 



The leaf of the wig-tree ^ is also like that of 

 the last named tree, but it is a small tree. Peculiar 

 to it is the fact that the fruit passes into down ^'^ : 

 we have not heard of such a thing in any other 

 tree. These trees are found in a good many 

 positions and regions. 



« Plin. 13. 120. 



' \fiov conj. Sch. ; XtvKhv UAld. In Pletho's excerpt the 

 passage has \elov, and Plin., I.e., evidently read Xtiov. 



* Ttepippriyvifxtvov. Plin., I.e., seems to have read -rtptmi- 

 ■yvvnevov. c/. 1. 5. 2 ; 9. 4. 3. 



' Plin. 13. 121. KOKKvyias conj. Sch. after Plin. I.e., cf. 

 Hesych. s.v. KfKKOKvyo>fiivT]v; noKKOfirfXias U; K0KKv/iri\4as 

 PoAld. 



i^" (KvainTovaBai : fiiLctum amitttre lanugine Plin. I.e. ej. 

 6. 8. 4. 



263 



