86 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



wider the heel of a shoot is the firmer it is, or else 

 the more easily does it put forth roots. These shoots 

 are quickly planted before the sap can dry up. In 

 the case of olive cuttings see that the shoot be taken 

 from a young branch, and cut off evenly at both 

 ends; such shoots are called by some clavolae (little 

 clubs), by others taleae^ and are cut about a foot 

 long. 

 5 With regard to the fourth kind of propagator 

 which from one tree passes to another: attention 

 must be paid both to the tree from which it is taken 

 and that on which it is grafted, as well as to the 

 time and to the manner in which the grafting is 

 done; for oak will not take pear, and this is so, 

 though the apple-tree will. This is a matter care- 

 fully heeded by many who give ear to the harus- 

 picesy^ for these declare that as many lightning 



sure that the translation is right. Planta means a sucker, or 

 shoot, and this was torn from the tree so that some part of 

 the mother plant came with it. Cf. Pliny, N. H., xvii, lo: 

 Avulsique arhorihus stolones vixere. Quo in genere et cum 

 perna sua avelluntur, partemque aliquam e matris quoque corpore 

 auferunt secum fimhriato corpore. 



Vergil speaks of rending them off. Cf. Georg., il, 23. Hie 

 plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum, and bids one (ii, 

 300) not to break them off. . . . 



aut summas defringe ex arbore plantaSy 

 tantus amor terrae. 



Columella uses the word in this sense, I think (ii, 2, 26, and 

 iii, 10, 7). Theophrastus's word TrapacnrciQ (surculus) means 

 literally a shoot ' * torn off. " 



^ Qui haruspices audiunt, etc. Pliny (N. H., xv, 15), who 



