380 
pliky's nattjeal history. 
[Book XYI. 
its respective nature : some immediately, as with animals, 
others, again, more slowly, carrying with them for a longer 
period the produce of their conception, a state which has from 
that circumstance obtained the name of* germination." When 
the plant flowers, it may be said to bring forth, and the flower 
makes its appearance by bursting its little capsule, which has 
acted to it as an uterus. The period of training and education 
is the growth of the fruit. This, as well as that of germina- 
tion, is a laborious process. 
CHAP. 40. TKEES WHICH NEYEH BLOSSOM. THE JUNIPER. 
The appearance of the blossom bespeaks the arrival of the 
spring and the birth anew of the year ; this blossom is the 
very pride and delight of the trees. Then it is that they 
show themselves quite renewed, and altogether diflerent from 
what they really are ; then it is that they quite revel in the con- 
test with each other which shall excel in the various hues 
and tints which they display. This merit has, however, been 
denied to many of them ; for they do not all blossom, and 
there are certain sombre trees which do not participate in this 
joyous season of the year. The holm-oak, the pitch- tree, the 
larch, and the pine are never bedecked with blossoms, and 
with them there is no particular forerunner sent forth to an- 
nounce the yearly birth of their respective fruits. The same 
is the case, too, with the cultivated and the wild fig,"^^ which 
immediately present their fruit in place of any blossom. Upon 
the fig, too, it is remarkable that there are abortive fruit to be 
seen which never ripen. 
The juniper, also, is destitute of blossom; some writers, 
however, distinguish two varieties of it, one of which blossoms 
but bears no fruit,^^ while the other has no blossom, but pre- 
sents the berries immediately, which remain on the tree 
for so long a period as two years : this assertion, however, is 
This statement, as also that relative to the holm oak, and other trees 
previously mentioned, is quite incorrect. The blossoms of the fig-tree are 
very much concealed, however, from view in the involucre of the clinan- 
tbium. 
'9 This is not the fact, though the blossom of the juniper is of humble 
character, and not easily seen. Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 6, only says that 
it is a matter of doubt, what Pliny so positively affirms. 
^0 This is the fact ; the male tree is sterile, but it fecundates the female. 
