BOOK III
Of Wild Trees.
Of the ways in which wild trees originate.
I. Now that we have spoken of cultivated trees, we must in like manner speak of wild ones, noting in what respects they agree with or differ from cultivated trees, and whether in any respects their character is altogether peculiar to themselves.
Now the ways in which they come into being are fairly simple; they all grow either from seed or from a root. But the reason of this is not that they could not possibly grow in any other way, but merely perhaps that no one even tries to plant them otherwise; whereas they might grow[1] from slips, if they were provided with a suitable position and received the fitting kind of tendance, as may be said even now of the trees of woodland and marsh, such as plane willow abele black poplar and elm; all these and other similar trees grow very quickly and well when they are planted from pieces torn off, so that[2] they survive, even if at the time of shifting they are already tall and as big as trees. Most of these are simply planted by being set firmly, for instance, the abele and the black poplar.
Such is the way in which these originate as well as from seed or from roots; the others grow only
