Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 21

by Theophrastus

Effects of situation, climate, tendance.

Again differences in situation and climate affect the In some places, as at Philippi, the soil seems to produce plants which resemble their parent; on the other hand a few kinds in some few places seem to undergo a change, so that wild seed gives a cultivated form, or a poor form one actually better.^[1] We have heard that this occurs, but only with the pomegranate, in Egypt^[2] and Cilicia; in Egypt a tree of the acid kind both from seeds and from cuttings produces one whose fruit has a sort of sweet taste,^[3] while about Soli in Cilicia near the river Pinaros (where the battle with Darius was fought) all those pomegranates raised from seed are without stones.

If anyone were to plant our palm at Babylon, it is reasonable to expect that it would become fruitful and like the palms of that country. And so would it be with any other country which has fruits that are congenial to that particular locality for the locality^[4] is more important than cultivation and tendance. A proof of this is the fact that things transplanted thence become unfruitful, and in some cases refuse to grow altogether.

There are also modifications due to feeding^[5] and attention of other kinds, which cause the wild to become cultivated, or again cause some cultivated kinds to go wild,^[6] such as pomegranate and almond. Some say that wheat has been known to be produced from barley, and barley from wheat, or again both growing on the same stool but these accounts should be taken as fabulous. Anyhow those things which do change in this manner do so spontaneously,^[7] and the alteration is due to a change of position (as we said^[8] happens with pomegranates in Egypt and Cilicia), and not to any particular method of cultivation.

So too is it when fruit-bearing trees become unfruitful, for instance the persion when moved from Egypt, the date-palm when planted in Hellas, or the tree which is called 'poplar' in Crete,^[9] if anyone should transplant it. ^[10]Some again say that the sorb becomes unfruitful if it comes into a very warm position, since it is by nature cold-loving. It is reasonable to suppose that both results follow because the natural circumstances are reversed, seeing that some things entirely refuse to grow when their place is changed. Such are the modifications due to position.

As to those due to method of culture, the changes which occur in things grown from seed are as was said; (for with things so grown also the changes are of all kinds). Under cultivation the pomegranate and the almond change character,^[11] the pomegranate if it receives pig-manure^[12] and a great deal of river water, the almond if one inserts a peg and^[13] removes for some time the gum which exudes and gives the other attention required. In like manner plainly some wild things become cultivated and some cultivated things become wild; for the one kind of change is due to cultivation, the other to neglect:—however it might be said that this is not a change but a natural development towards a better or an inferior form;(for that it is not possible to make a wild olive pear or fig into a cultivated olive pear or fig). As to that indeed which is said to occur in the case of the wild olive, that if the tree is transplanted with its top-growth entirely cut off,^[14] it produces 'coarse olives,'^[15] this is no^[16] very great change. However it can make no difference which way^[17] one takes this.

 

1. ἁπλῶς: ? om. Sch.
2. c.f. C.P. 1. 9. 2.
3. Or 'wine-like.' Cited by Apollon. Hist. Mir. 43.
4. οὗτος conj. W.; αὐτὸς Ald.
5. τῇ τροφῇ conj. W.; τῆς τροφῆς UMV Ald.
6. ἔνια ἀπαγριοῦται οἷον conj. W.; ἔνια καὶ ἀπορῇ τε ῥόα UV; ἐ. καὶ ἀπορῇ τὰ ῥόα M; ἐ. καὶ ἀπορρεῖ τὰ ῥόα Ald.
7. i.e. cultivation has nothing to do with it.
8. 2. 2. 7.
9. c.f. 3. 3. 4.
10. Plin. 17. 242.
11. i.e. improve. c.f. 2. 2. 6. ad fin.
12. c.. C.P. 2. 14. 2; 3. 9. 3; Plin. 17. 259; Col. 5. 10. 15 and 16.
13. c.f. 2. 7. 6; C.P. 1. 17. 10; 2. 14. 1; Plin. 17. 252.
14. περικοπεὶς conj. W.; περισκοπτεῖς U; περικόπτης Ald.
15. φαυλίας conj. Salm.; φαύλους U; θάλος Ald. cf. Plin. 16. 244. These olives produced little oil, but were valued for perfumery: see C.P 6. 8. 3 adn 5; de odor., 15.
16. οὐ add. Salm,; om. MSS. (?) Ald. H.
17. i.e. whether nature or man is said to cause the admitted change.

Layout 2