fir fir Aleppo pine, and in general all those that bear cones: also the date-palm, except that in Babylon it may be that, as some say, they take cuttings[1] from it. The cypress in most regions grows from seed, but in Crete[2] from the trunk also, for instance in[3] the hill country about Tarra; for there grows the cypress which they clip, and when cut it shoots in every possible way, from the part which has been cut, from the ground, from the middle, and from the upper parts and occasionally, but rarely, it shoots from the roots also.
About the oak accounts differ; some say it only grows from seed, some from the root also, but not vigorously, others again that it grows from the trunk itself, when this is cut. But no tree grows from a piece torn off or from a root except those which make side-growths.
However in all the trees which have several methods of originating the quickest method and that which promotes the most vigorous growth is from a piece torn off, or still better from a sucker, if this is taken from the root. And, while all the trees which are propagated thus or by some kind of slip[4] seem to be alike in their fruits to the original tree, those raised from the fruit, where this method of growing is also possible, are nearly all inferior, while some quite lose the character of their kind, as vine apple fig pomegranate pear. As for the fig,[5] no cultivated kind is raised from its seed, but either the ordinary wild fig or some wild kind is the result, and this often differs in colour from the parent; a black fig gives a
