degenerate from seed, since the parent trees are stronger. For the contrary[1] would be very strange, seeing that degenerate forms are found even in cultivated trees,[2] and among these only in those which are raised from seed. (As a general rule these are degenerate, though men may in some cases effect a change[3] by cultivation).
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.[4] We have heard that this occurs, but only with the pomegranate, in Egypt[5] 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,[6] 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[7] 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[8] and
