BOOK XVI. xLvi. iio-xLix. 113 



barrenness in a woman. But Nature, showing her 

 foresight in this matter also, has becn rather careless 

 about bestowing seed on a trce that is propagated 

 easily even from a plantcd sprig. It is said however 

 that one variety of willow usually carries its seed till 

 it ripens ; this grows on the island of Crete just by 

 the path coming down from the Cave ° of Jupiter ; 

 it has a hard woody seed of the size of a chick-pea. 



XLVII. Some trees are rendered barren by a fault LocaJ. 

 in the locahty, for instance the forest of Cende * on fj^-iill^^ 

 Paros, which bears nothing ; and the peach-trees on 

 Rhodes only produce blossom. This peculiarity is 

 also caused by sex, as in the kinds of trees of which 

 the males do not bear ; though some people reverse 

 this and assert that it is the male trees that bear. 

 Another cause of barrenness is thick growth of leaves. 



XLVIII. Some trees producing fruit bear it both Positionof 

 on the sides and at the end of their branches, for{^g*'^'^ 

 instance the pear, the pomegranate, the fig and the 

 myrtle. In other respects they have the same nature 

 as cereal plants, for in their case also the ear grows 

 at the tip of the stalks, whereas beans grow on the 

 sides. The palm-tree alone, as has been stated, xiii. 30. 

 has its fruit, enclosed in spathes, hanging down in 

 bunches. 



XLIX. The remaining trees have their fruit under- Frnit 

 neath their leaves for its protection, except the fig, }oiiwge. ^^ 

 the leaf of which is very large and gives a great deal 

 of shade, and because of this the fruit hangs above 

 the leaves. The fig is also the only tree whose leaf 

 forms later than the fruit. A remarkable thing 

 reported in the case of a certain kind of fig-tree 

 found in Cihcia and C\^rus and on tlie mainland of 

 Greece is that the figs grow undemeath the leaves, 



461 



