Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 23

by Theophrastus

Of spontaneous and other changes in other plants.

IV. ^[1]Of other plants it appears that bergamot-mint turns into cultivated mint, unless it is fixed by special attention; and this is why men frequently transplant^[2] it; ^[3]so too wheat turns into darnel. Now in trees such changes, if they occur, are spontaneous, but in annual plants they are deliberately brought about: for instance, one-seeded wheat and rice-wheat change^[4] into wheat, if bruised before they are sown; and this does not happen at once, but in the third year. This change resembles that produced in the seeds by difference of soil^[5]; for these grains vary according to the soil, and the change takes about the same time as that which occurs in one-seeded wheat. Again wild wheats and barleys also with tendance and cultivation change in a like period.

These changes appear to be due to change of soil and cultivation, and in some cases the change is due to both, in others to cultivation alone; for instance, in order that pulses may not become uncookable,^[6] men bid one moisten the seed in nitre for a night^[7] and sow it in dry ground the next day. To make lentils vigorous they plant the seeds in dung^[8]; to make chick-peas large they bid one moisten the seed while still in the pods,^[9] before sowing. Also the time of sowing makes differences which conduce to digestibility and harmlessness^[10]: thus, if one sows vetches^[11] in spring, they become quite harmless and are not indigestible like those sown in autumn.

Again in pot-herbs change is produced by cultivation; for instance, they say that,^[12] if celery seed is trodden and rolled in after sowing, it comes up curly it also varies from change of soil, like other things. Such variations are common to all; we must now consider whether a tree, like animals, becomes unproductive from mutilation or removal of a part. At all events it does not appear that division^[13] is an injury, as it were, which affects the amount of fruit produced either the whole tree perishes, or else, if it survives,^[14] it bears fruit. Old age however is a cause which in all plants puts an end to life. ….^[15]

It would seem more surprising if^[16] the following changes occurred in animals naturally and frequently; some animals do indeed seem to change according to the seasons, for instance, the hawk the hoopoe and other similar birds. So also changes in the nature of the ground produce changes in animals, for instance, the water-snake changes into a viper, if the marshes dry up. Most obvious are certain changes in regard to the way in which animals are produced, and such changes run through a series of creatures^[17]; thus a caterpillar changes into a chrysalis, and this in turn into the perfect insect; and the like occurs in a number of other cases. But there is hardly anything abnormal in this, nor is the change in plants, which is the subject of our enquiry, analogous to it. That kind of change occurs in trees and in all woodland plants generally, as was said before, and its effect is that, when a change of the required character occurs in the climatic conditions, a spontaneous change in the way of growth ensues.^[18] These instances must suffice for investigation of the ways in which plants are produced or modified.

 

1. cf. 6. 7. 2; Plin. 19. 176.
2. i.e. to prevent the change which cultivated soil induces.
3. But see reff. under αἴρα in Index.
4. cf. C.P. 5. 6. 12; Plin. 18. 93.
5. χώραν conj. St.; ὥραν Ald. H.
6. ἀτεράμονα conj. W.; ἀτέραμνα UAld. cf. 8. 8. 6 and 7; C.P. 4. 7. 2; 4. 12. 1 and 8; Geop. 2. 35.2; 2. 41.
7. νύκτα I conj.; νυκτὶ MSS.
8. ἐν βολίτῳ conj. Milas. on Geop. 3. 27; ἔμβολον UMV Ald. c.f. C.P. 5. 6. 11; Col. 2. 10. 15; Plin. 18. 198.
9. c.f. C.P. 5. 6. 11; Geop. 2. 3. 6.
10. ἀλυπίαν conj. Sch.; δι᾽ ἀλυπίας M; δι᾽ ἀλυπίαν Ald.
11. cf. Plin. 18. 139; Col. 2. 10. 34.
12. cf. C.P. 5. 6. 7; Geop. 12. 23. 2.
13. γε conj. Sch,; τε Ald.
14. διάμενον conj. Sch.; διάμένοντα Ald.
15. Something seems to have been lost at the end of §3.
16. εἰ ins. Sch,; τοιαῦται may however mean 'the above mentioned,' and refer to something which has been lost.
17. i.e. in the instance given the development of an insect exhibits, not one, but a series of changes from one creature to another.
18. Whereas the metamorphoses mentioned above are independent of climatic conditions.

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