BOOK III. X. 14-16 



the power of productiveness if it has not itself borne 

 fruit. And this statement is not at variance with 

 the former opinion. For it is evident that some men 

 are incapable of procreation even though they have 

 the full number of members ; so that it should not 

 be beyond belief that a cane sprung from a genera- 

 tive place, if devoid of fruit at present, will be 

 devoid of progeny in the future also. 



And so, to return to the usage of the farmers, they 15 

 give the name spadones or eunuchs " to that sort of 

 shoots which have produced nothing ; which they 

 would not do if they did not suppose them to be 

 incapable of bearing. It is this very appellation that 

 suggested to me a reason for not choosing mallet- 

 shoots,^ even though they were sprung from an 

 approved part of the vine, if they had not borne fruit ; 

 although I understand that even these are not entirely 

 affected with barrenness. For I admit that stock- 

 shoots '^ too, though they have come out of the hard 

 wood, acquire fruitfulness the following season ; 

 and for that reason they are reduced to a single 

 spur,*^ so that it may have strength for bearing 

 fruit. But we find that offspring of this sort owes 16 

 not so much to the spur itself as to the munificence of 

 the mother vine. For because it clings to its own 

 stock, which is naturally fruitful, still mingling with 

 the elements of its parent,^ born of prolific seed and 

 reared, so to speak, at the breasts of a nurse, it learns 

 little by little to produce fruit. But when a slip is 

 torn from the stock prematurely and unseasonably, 



" Cf. Isidore, Orig. XVII. 5. 6, Spadones sunt surculi 

 fruge carentes, ex ipsa appellatione, quod sint i7i}mbiles fructu 

 et sterilitate affecii; Pliny, N.H. XIII. 38. 



* See III. 6. 3. « See III. 10. 5. 



" Cf. IV. 21. 3. « Cf. Chap. 10, sec. 10, above. 



293 



