I] OF MODES OF PROPAGATION 83 

 CHAPTER XXXIX 



OF MODES OF PROPAGATION 



I Now with regard to the second phase— the sowing 

 — the following questions arise: What season of thej 

 year is naturally adapted for the sowing of a given 

 seed? For as in a farm the aspect of each part of iti^ 

 is of importance, so also is the season at which 

 each kind of plant grows with the least difficulty. 

 Do we not see that some plants blossom in the 

 spring, others in the winter, and that the same 



: things do not flower in autumn as in winter? And 

 accordingly some things are sown, grafted, or 

 mown earlier or later than others. We notice also 

 that though most grafting is better done in the 

 spring than in autumn, yet figs are grafted near the 

 summer solstice and cherries in the heart of winter. 



3 And so, as there are four' ways in which plants are 

 propagated — one natural, three artificial, namely, 

 the transference of things with quick roots from soil 

 to soil, the taking of shoots from a tree and planting 

 them in the ground, and the grafting on one tree of 

 a slip taken from another, we must examine in de- 

 tail the conditions of time and place required for 

 each of these operations. 



Quare cum semina, etc. This section is taken from Theo- 

 irastus (H. P., ii, i), where, however, eight modes of pro- 

 ion are given. 

 Tergil (Georg., ii, 10-36), using Theophrastus or Varro, 

 into greater detail. 



