Most trees are fruit-bearing, but about willow black poplar and elm men hold different opinions, as was said[1]; and some, as the Arcadians, say that only the black poplar is without fruit, but that all the other mountain trees bear fruit. However in Crete there are a number of black poplars which bear fruit[2]; there is one at the mouth of the cave on mount Ida,[3] in which the dedicatory offerings are hung, and there is another small one not far off, and there are quite a number about a spring called the Lizard's Spring about twelve furlongs off. There are also some in the hill-country of Ida in the same neighbourhood, in the district called Kindria and in the mountains about Praisia.[4] Others again, as the Macedonians, say that the elm is the only tree of this class which bears fruit.
Again the character of the position makes a great difference as to fruit-bearing, as in the case of the persea[5] and the date-palm. The persea of Egypt bears fruit, and so it does wherever it grows in the neighbouring districts, but in Rhodes[6] it only gets as far as flowering. The date-palm in the neighbourhood of Babylon is marvellously fruitful; in Hellas it does not even ripen its fruit, and in some places it does not even produce any.
The same may be said of various other trees; in fact even[7] of smaller herbaceous plants and bushes some are fruitful, others not, although the latter are
- ↑ 2. 2. 10.
- ↑ cf. 2. 2. 10. It appears that the buds of the poplar were mistaken for fruit (Sch.); cf. Diosc. 1. 81. Later writers perpetuated the error by calling them κόκκοι.
- ↑ τοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ conj. Sch.; τοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἴδῃ U; τοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἴδῃς MV; ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ Ald.H.
- ↑ Πραισίαν conj. Meurs. Creta; τιρασίαν UMVAld.
- ↑ cf. 4. 2. 5.περσέαι conj. R. Const.; περσείας U; περσίας Ald.
- ↑ Ῥόδῳ conj. R. Const. from G, so too Plin. 16. 111; ῥόα Ald. cf. 1. 13. 5. for a similar corruption.
- ↑ ἐπεὶ καὶ conj. Sch. from G; ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ Ald.
