Chap. 39.] 
OEDEE OF THE PEODUCTIOIS" OE PLAKTS. 
379 
arranged, in the box, concave, and, upon the apple, scattered 
without any order or regularity. In the apple and the pear 
"we find several leaves issuing from the same stalk, and in the 
elm and the cytisus*^^ they are covered with ramified veins. 
To the above particulars Cato^"-^ adds that the leaves of the 
poplar and the quercus should not be given to cattle after they 
have fallen and become withered, and he recommends the 
leaves of the fig,*^^ the holm-oak, and the ivy for oxen : the 
leaves, too, of the reed and the laurel are sometimes given 
them to eat. The leaves of the service-tree fall all at once, 
but in the others only by degrees. Thus much in reference 
to the leaves. 
CHAP. 39. (25.) THE NATUEAL OEDEE OF THE PEODUCTIOK" OF 
PLANTS. 
The following is the order in which the operations of Na- 
ture take place throughout the year. The first is fecundation, 
which takes place when the west wind begins to prevail, gene- 
rally about the sixth day before the ides of February ."^^ Ey 
the agency of this wind all the productions of the earth are 
impregnated ; to such an extent, indeed, that the mares even 
in Spain are impregnated by it, as we have already stated. "^^ 
This is the generating principle of the universe, and it re- 
ceives its name of Eavonius, as some think, from our word 
fovere," which means to warm and cherish it blows 
from due west at the opening of the spring. The peasantry 
call this period of the year the time of heat,"*^^ because Na- 
ture is then longing to receive the seeds of her various pro- 
ductions, and is imparting lite to everything that is planted. 
The vegetables conceive'^^ on various days, each according to 
The leaves of the elm and the tree supposed to be identical with the 
cytisus of the ancients have no characteristics in common. JSee B. xiii. 
c. 47, and the Notes. 
DeEe Rust. cc. 5, 30, 45. 
73 Yery inappropriate food for cattle, it would appear : the fig leaf being 
charged with a corrosive milky juice ; the leaf of the holm oak, hard and 
leathery ; and that of the ivy, bitter and nauseous in the highest degree. 
'^'^ Eighth of February. "'^ See B. viii. c. 67. 
'6 Catlitio. 
77 He alludes to the period of the rising of the sap ; an entirely dis- 
tinct process from germination. 
