90 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



granate, and others of their kind, which are of a 

 comparatively dry habit, one grafts at once. In 

 some cases the shoot to be transferred must be in 

 bud — as is the case with fig-trees. 



4 Of these four methods of propagation, for slow- 

 , growing things it is best to use cuttings, as is done 



in the case of fig plantations. For the true seed of 

 the fig-tree is enclosed in the fig which we eat — 

 tiny grains which owing to their small size can 

 hardly produce a paltry sprout. For in general, all ^ 

 things that are fine and dry are slow to grow, whilst 

 things of looser tissue are also more fruitful — as 

 female than male; and this rule holds good for 

 plant?? also. Thus the fig, pomegranate, and vine, 



5 feminine in their softness, grow quickly — the palm, 

 cypress and olive slowly; since in the matter of 

 growth^ moist things are quicker than dry. So it 

 pays better to plant cuttings from the fig orchard in 

 nurseries, than to bury in the ground seeds from the 

 fig: except indeed where one is forced to do the 

 latter, as for instance if at any time one wants to 



^ Omnia enim minuta. From Theophrastus (Caus. Plant., 

 i, 8), Td/i£vyd)0 irvKva koX ^ripd dvaav^rjra k.t.X. But 7ryKvd = not 

 minuta, but densa. One is sometimes tempted to believe that 

 varro, despite his long stay at Athens, was not a very good 

 Greek scholar. ^ 



^ In hoc enim umidiora. One would have expected Varro 

 to say that these plants were examples of the quicker growth 

 shown by what was loose of fibre and moist than by what was 

 close of fibre and dry. Cf. Theophrastus (/. c), IvavKorepa 

 yap TO. 9r)X6a rutv appkvojv, vyportpa Kai navwrepa ttjv cpvaiv 

 ovra. 



