Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 29

by Theophrastus

 

BOOK IΙI

 

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 in these two ways—while some of them, such as silver-fir fir and Aleppo pine grow only from seed. All those that have seed and fruit, even if they grow from a root, will grow from seed too for they say that even those which, like elm and willow, appear to have no fruit reproduce themselves. For proof they give the fact that many such trees come up at a distance from the roots of the original tree, whatever the position may be; and further, they have observed a thing which occasionally happens; for instance, when at Pheneos^[3] in Arcadia the water which had collected in the plain since the underground channels^[4] were blocked burst forth, where there were willows growing near the inundated region, the next year after it had dried up they say that willows grew again; and where there had been elms, elms^[5] grew, even as, where there had been firs and silver-firs, these trees reappeared—as if the former trees followed the example^[6] of the latter.

But the willow is said to shed its fruit early, before it is completely matured and ripened; and so the poet^[7] not unfittingly calls it "the willow which loses its fruit."

That the elm also reproduces itself the following taken to be a proof: when the fruit is carried by the winds to neighbouring spots, they say that young trees grow from it. Something similar to this appears to be what happens in the case of certain under-shrubs and herbaceous plants; though they have no visible seed, but some of them only a sort of down, and others only a flower, such as thyme, young plants nevertheless grow from these. As for the plane, it obviously has seeds, and seedlings grow from them. This is evident in various ways, and here is a very strong proof—a plane-tree has before now been seen which came up in a brass pot.

Such we must suppose are the ways in which wild trees originate, apart from the spontaneous ways of which natural philosophers tell. ^[8]Anaxagoras says that the air contains the seeds of all things, and that these, carried down by the rain, produce the plants; while Diogenes^[9] says that this happens when water decomposes and mixes in some sort with earth. ^[10]Kleidemos maintains that plants are made of the same elements as animals, but that they fall short of being animals in proportion as their composition is less pure and as they are colder. ^[11] there are other philosophers also who speak of spontaneous generation.

But this kind of generation is somehow beyond the ken of our senses. There are other admitted and observable kinds, as when a river in flood gets over its banks or has altogether changed its course, even as the Nesos in the district of Abdera often alters its course, and in so doing causes such a growth of forest in that region that by the third year it casts a thick shade. The same result ensues when heavy rains prevail for a long time; during these too many plants shoot up. Now, as the flooding of a river, it would appear, conveys seeds of fruits of trees, and, as they say, irrigation channels convey the^[12] seeds of herbaceous plants, so heavy rain acts in the same way^[13]; for it brings down many of the seeds with it, and at the same time causes a sort of decomposition of the earth and of the water. In fact, the mere mixture of earth with water in Egypt seems to produce a kind of vegetation. And in some places, if the ground is merely lightly worked and stirred, the plants native to the district immediately spring up; ^[14]for instance, the cypress in Crete. And something similar to this occurs even in smaller plants; as soon as the earth is stirred, wherever it may be, a sort of vegetation comes up. And in partly saturated soil, if you break up the ground, they say that caltrop appears. Now these ways of origination are due to the change which takes place in the soil, whether there were seeds in it already, or whether the soil itself somehow produces the result. And the latter explanation is perhaps not strange, seeing that the moist element is also locked up in the soil.^[15] Again, in some places they say that after rain a more singular abundance of vegetation has been known to spring up; for instance, at Cyrene, after a heavy pitchy shower had fallen for it was under these circumstances that there sprang up the wood^[16] which is near the town, though till then it did not exist. They say also that silphium^[17] has been known to appear from some such cause, where there was none before. ^[18]Such are the ways in which these kinds of generation come about.

 

1. ἐκφύοιτο conj. W.; ἐπιφύοιτο UMVAld.
2. ὥστε καὶ μεγ. conj. Sch.; καὶ ὥστε καὶ μεγ. UM; καὶ ὥστε μεγ. Pald.
3. cf. 5. 4. 6.
4. 'Katavothra' (now called 'the devil's holes,' see Lawson, cited below); cf. Paus. 8. 14; Catull. 68. 109; Plut. de sera numinis vindicta, 557 c; Plin. 31. 36; Frazer, Pausanias and other Greek Sketches, pp. 315 foll.; Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, p. 85.
5. πτελέας αὖθις πτελέας conj. St.; πτελέας ἀντὶ πελέας U; πτελέας ἀντὶ πτελέας MV; πτελέας αὖθις πτελέας P; πτελέας αὖθις πτελέας Ald.
6. i.e. by growing from seed, as conifers normally do.
7. Homer, Od. 10. 510; cf. Plin. 16. 110.
8. cf. C.P. 1. 5. 2.
9. Sc. of Apollonia, the 'Ionian' philosopher.
10. cf. C.P. 1. 10. 3; 3. 23. 1; Arist. Meteor. 2. 9.
11. λέγουσι … γενεσέως apparently a gloss (W.).
12. τὰ conj. W.; τὴν MAld.
13. ἡ δ᾽ … ταὐτὸ conj. W.; ἡ δ᾽ ἐπ. τοῦτ᾽ αὖ ἐποίει ταὐτό UMV (δ᾽ αὖ marked doubtful in U); ἡ δ᾽ ἐπ. τοῦτ᾽ αὖτὸ ἐποίει Ald.
14. Plin. 16. 142.
15. i.e. and is released by working the ground.
16. cf. C.P. 1. 5. 1; Plin. 16. 143, who gives the date a.u.c. 130; cf. 19. 41.
17. cf. 6. 3.
18. τοιοῦτοι MSS.; τοσοῦτοι conj. W.

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