84 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



CHAPTER XL 



SOWING, PLANTING, AND GRAFTING 



1 The primary seed which is the origin of reproduc- 

 tion is of two kinds. It is either visible or invisible; 

 invisible where the seeds are in the air (and Anaxa- 

 goras,^ the natural philosopher, asserts that there 

 are such), or, as Theophrastus writes, where water 

 flowing on to the land carries them with it. 



The visible seeds, as they concern farmers, de- 

 mand our close attention. Certain seeds, indeed, 

 quite capable of reproducing their kind, are so small 

 as to be seen with difficulty; as, for instance, those 

 of the cypress — for the nuts which grow on this 

 tree, small encapsulated balls, as it were, are not 



2 the true seed, which is inside them. Nature has 

 given ^ the original seeds ; the others were discovered 

 through experiments made by the farmer. The 

 first seeds were those which unaided by him grew 

 before they were planted ; the second, those which 

 were got from the former, and which did not grow 



^ Anaxagoras. Theophrastus, citing Anaxagoras, assigns 

 to him both these statements. Cf. Theophrastus (H. P., iii, 

 1,4): 'Ava^ayopaq fitv tov dtpa Travrwv <pdaKU}v it\Hv oTripfxaTa kqi 

 ravra ovyKaTacpepSiitva Tip vdaTi yevvdv rd (pvTa. 



What Aristotle called d/ioiofisprj (cf. Lucretius, i, 834) Anaxa- 

 goras himself called airkp^iaTa tCjv xpvH-dTiov. 



^ Dedit Natura, etc. Cf. Vergil (Georg., ii, 20): 



Hos Natura modos primum dedit . . . 

 Sunt alii quos ipse via sibi repperit usus 



