BOOK X\\ xxviii. 98-xxix. loi 



XXVIII. The flesh of the ground strawberry is Stravbeny. 

 different from that of the strawberry-tree which is 

 related to it, the strawberry being the only fruit that 

 grows at the same time on a bush and on the ground. ArbJitui 

 Thetree itself is asort of shrub ; the fruit takes a year •™"* 



to mature, and the following crop flowers side by side 

 with the earUer crop when it is ripening, Authorities 

 disagree as to whether it is the male plant or the 

 female that is unproductive. The fruit is held in no 

 esteem, the reason for its name being that a person 

 will eat only one ! '^ Nevertheless the Greeks call 

 it by the two names of comaron and memaecylon, 

 which shows that there are two varieties of the 

 plant ; and with ourselves it has another name, the 

 arbutus. Juba states that in Arabia the strawberry- 

 tree grows to a height of 75 feet. 



XXIX. There is also a great difference among the Varietiesof 

 acinus class — to begin with, between grapes them- ^iiard. 

 selves, which vary in respect of firmness, thinness or 

 thickness of skin and the stone inside, which in some 



is specially small and in others actually double, the 

 latter producing extremely Httle juice. Again, the 

 berries of the ivy and the elder are very widely 

 different, and the pomegranate differs greatly in 

 shape also, being the only fruit that has corners ; 

 andthere is no membrane for each separate grain, but 

 only one wrapping for them all in common, which is 

 white in colour. And these fruits consist entirely of 

 juice and flesh, particularly the ones which contain 

 only a small amount of woody substance. 



There is also a great variety among the berries of 

 the baca kind, those of the ohve and the laurel being 

 different, and that of the lotus differing in structure 

 from that of the cornel and that of the myrtle from 



357 



