ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, II. iii. 3–iv. 2
shoots had, so to speak, only been shed. But after all such phenomena are perhaps far from strange, since the cause in each case is obvious; rather is it strange that trees should bear fruit not at the places where it naturally forms, or else fruit which does not belong to the character[1] of the tree. And most surprising of all is it when,[2] as has been said,[3] there is a change in the entire character of the tree. Such are the changes which occur in trees.
Of spontaneous and other changes in other plants.
IV. [4]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[5] it; [6]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[7] 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[8]; 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,[9]
- ↑ οἰκείους• καὶ I conj.; οἰκειῦται UMC; οἰκείως Ald.H.; ἐοικότας conj. W.
- ↑ εἰ ins. Sch.
- ↑ 2. 3. 1.
- ↑ cf. 6. 7. 2; Plin. 19. 176.
- ↑ i.e. to prevent the change which cultivated soil induces.
- ↑ But see reff. under αἴρα in Index.
- ↑ cf. C.P. 5. 6. 12; Plin. 18. 93.
- ↑ χώραν conj. St.; ὥραν Ald. H.
- ↑ 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.
