ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. i. 6–9
are included under excess and defect: for the 'more' and the 'less' are the same thing as excess and defect, whereas 'differently arranged' implies a difference of position; for instance, the fruit may be above or below the leaves,[1] and, as to position on the tree itself, the fruit may grow on the apex of it or on the side branches, and in some cases even on the trunk, as in the sycamore; while some plants again even bear their fruit underground, for instance arakhidna[2] and the plant called in Egypt uingon; again in some plants the fruit has a stalk, in some it has none. There is a like difference in the floral organs: in some cases they actually surround the fruit, in others they are differently placed[3]: in fact it is in regard to the fruit, the leaves, and the shoots that the question of position has to be considered.
Or again there are differences as to symmetry[4]: in some cases the arrangement is irregular, while the branches of the silver-fir are arranged opposite one another; and in some cases the branches are at equal distances apart, and correspond in number, as where they are in three rows.[5]
Wherefore the differences between plants must be observed in these particulars, since taken together they shew forth the general character of each plant.
But, before we attempt to speak about each, we must make a list of the parts themselves. Now the primary and most important parts, which are also common to most, are these—root, stem, branch, twig; these are the parts into which we might divide the plant, regarding them as members,[6] corresponding to
- ↑ cf. C.P. 5. 1. 9.
- ↑ cf. 1. 6. 11. T. extends the term καρπός so as to include any succulent edible part of the plant.
- ↑ T. does not consider that καρπός was necessarily anteceded by a flower.
- ↑ Plin. 16. 122.
- ↑ i.e. ternate.
- ↑ i.e. if we wished to make an anatomical division. μέλη conj. Sch. cf. 1. 2. 7; μέρη Ald.
