BOOK XVl. Lviir. 134-Lix, 137 



manifold and iiiarvellous methods. In facl, we liave Transpiant- 

 shown that iiot all trees will grow in all places, or /r!^ t^fuHr^'^' 

 live if removed from one place to another ; this is f'<^^^- 

 due in some cases to antipathy, in others to obstinacy, 

 more frequently to the weakness of the specimens 

 transplanted, because in some cases the cHmate is 

 unfavourable and in others the soil is incompatible. 



LIX. Bahii of Gilead disdains to grow elsewhere,'* 

 and a citron grown in Assyria will not bear else- 

 where ; and Ukewise the palm also will not grow every- 

 where or, even if it does grow, bear fruit, or else even 

 when it has made a pi-omise and a show of bearing, 

 refuses to mature the fruit, seeming to have given birth 

 to it against its will. The cinnamon shrub has not 

 the strength to travel to the neighbourhood of Syria. 

 The dehcate perfumes of amomum and nard cannot 

 endure to travel out of India and be conveyed by sea 

 even as far as Arabia — an attempt to import them 

 was made by King Seleucus. What is most surprising 

 is that although the trees themselves can usually be 

 persuaded to Uve and to bear transplantation, and 

 occasionally even the soil will grant the request to 

 nourish foreigners and give food to immigrants, 

 the cUmate is absolutely unrelenting. The pepper- 

 tree wiU Uve in Italy, and the casia-plant even in a 

 northern region, and the incense-tree has been 

 known to Uve in Lydia, but where are we to get the 

 sunshine that sucks aU the juice out of these plants 

 or ripens the drops of essence that they shed ? 

 It is nearly as surprising that Nature may alter in 

 the same locaUties and yet retain a hundred per 

 cent * of her vigour. She had bestowed the cedar 

 on the regions of torrid heat, but it grows in the 

 mountains of Lycia and Phrygia. She had made cold 



477 



