ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. iii. 8–iv. 2
oak the oak-moss, in the pine the flowering tuft.'[1] The people of Macedonia say that these trees also produce no flowers—Phoenician cedar beech aria[2] (holm-oak) maple. Others distinguish two kinds of Phoenician cedar, of which one bears flowers but bears no fruit, while the other, though it has no flower, bears a fruit which shows itself at once[3]—just as wild figs produce their abortive fruit. However that may be,[4] it is a fact that this is the only tree which keeps its fruit for two years. These matters then need enquiry.
Of the times of budding and fruiting of wild, as compared with cultivated, trees.
IV. Now the budding of wild trees occurs in some cases at the same time as that of the cultivated forms, but in some cases somewhat, and in some a good deal later; but in all cases it is during the spring season. But there is greater diversity in the time of fruiting; as we said before, the times of ripening do not correspond to those of budding, but there are wide differences. For even in the case of those trees which are somewhat late in fruiting,—which some say take a year to ripen their fruit—such as Phoenician cedar and kermes-oak, the budding nevertheless takes place in the spring. Again there are differences of time between individual trees of the same kind, according to the locality; those in the marshes bud earliest, as the Macedonians say, second to them those in the plains, and latest those in the mountains.
Again of particular trees some wild ones bud
- ↑ i.e. the male flower, cf. Schol. on Ar. Vesp. 1111. Θείφραστος κυρίως λέγει κύτταρον τὴν προάνθησιν τῆς πίτυος: but no explanation of such a use of the word suggests itself. cf. 3.3.8; 4. 8. 7.
- ↑ ἀρίαν conj. Sch., cf. 3.4.2; 3.16.3; 3.17.1; ὀξύνην ἀγρλαν Ald,
- ↑ i.e. without antecedent flower.
- ↑ δ᾽ οὖν conj. W.; σχεδὸν UMVAld.
