BOOK XVI. xLi. loi -xLii. 104 



when it spreads it out. Tiiose species whicli ck) not 

 blossom only produce shoots and mature them. 

 Some blossom at once during the process of budding, 

 and are quick in the blossom but slow in ripening, 

 for instance the vine ; some blossom with a late 

 budding and ripen quickly, for instance the mulberry, 

 which buds the hitest among cultivated trees and 

 only when the cold weather is over, owing to which it 

 has been called the wisest of the trees ; but when its 

 budding has begun it breaks out all over the tree so 

 completely that it is completed in a single night with 

 a veritable crackhng. 



XLII. Of the trees that we have spoken of as Spedesin 

 budding in winter at the rising of Aquila, the almond '^t%% 

 blossoms first of all, in the month of January, while in ji"werin</. 

 March it develops its fruit. The next to flower 

 after the almond is the Armenian plum,° then the 

 jujube and the early peach — these exotic trees and 

 forced; the first to fiower in the order of nature 

 are, of forest trees, the elder, which has a great 

 deal of pith, and the male cornel, which has none ; 

 and of cultivated trees the apple, and a httle after- 

 wards, so that they can be seen blossoming simul- 

 taneously, the pear, the cherry and the plum. 

 These are followed by the laurel, and that by the 

 cypress, and then the pomegranate and the figs. 

 When these are ah'eady flowering the vines and the 

 olives also bud, and their sap rises at the rising of the 

 Pleiades — that is their constellation, whereas the vine 

 flowers at midsummer, and also the ohve, which 

 begins a Uttle later. AU begin to shed their 

 blossom not sooner than a week after fiowering, 

 and some more slowly, but none more than a 



« Prohably tbe apricot, see XV. 41. 



455 



