BOOK XVT. xLi. 9S-101 



although in trees excessive budding tends to exhaust 

 thc sap ; but some trees have other buddings by 

 nature, in addition to that which takes place in spring, 

 these being settled by their own constellations (an 

 account of which will be given more appropriately 

 in the next volume but one after this) — a winter xviii. 

 budding at the rising of Aquila, a summer one at the ^^^ ^* 

 rising of the Dog-star and a third at the rising of 

 Arcturus. Some people think that the two latter 

 buddings are common to all trees, but that they are 

 most noticeable in the fig, the viiie and the pome- 

 granate ; and they explain this as due to the fact 

 that those are the times when there is the most 

 abundant crop of figs in Thessaly and Macedonia ; 

 although this explanation holds good most clearly in 

 Egypt. Also wliereas the rest of the trees, as soon 

 as they have begun to bud, keep on budding con- 

 tinuously, the hard-oak, the fir and the larch divide 

 the process into three parts and produce their 

 buds in three batches; consequently they also 

 shed scales of bark three times, a process which 

 occurs in all trees during germination because 

 the bark of the pregnant tree is burst open. But 

 their first budding is at the beginning of spring and 

 takes about a fortnight, while they bud for the second 

 time when the sun is passing through the Twins, 

 with the consequence that the first shoots are seen 

 to be pushed up by those that foUow, the growth being 

 attached by a joint. The third budding period of 

 the same trees, which starts from midsummer, is the 

 shortest, and does not take more than a week ; 

 and on this occasion also tlie jointing on the tips as 

 they grow out is clearly visible. Only the vine buds 

 twice, first when it puts forth a cluster and then 



453 



