also regularly increases by pushing forward of the already existing part,[1] even if the leaves are mutilated, as in corn which is bitten down by animals. Corn however does not[2] make side-growths, as some leguminous plants do.) Here then we may find a difference which occurs both in the making of buds and in the making of fresh growth.
[3]Some say that wild trees are not deep rooting, because they all grow from seed but this is not a very accurate statement. For it is possible that, when they are well established,[4] they may send their roots down far; in fact even most pot-herbs do this, though these are not so strong as trees, and are undoubtedly grown from seed planted in the ground.[5] The kermes-oak however seems to be the deepest rooting of wild trees; silver-fir and fir are only moderately so, and shallowest are joint-fir plum bullace (which is a sort of wild plum). The last two also have few roots, while joint-fir has many. Trees which do not root deep,[6] and especially silver-fir and fir, are liable to be rooted up by winds.
So the Arcadians say. But the people who live near Mount Ida say that the silver fir is deeper rooting[7] than the oak,[8] and has straighter roots, though they are fewer. Also that those which have the deepest roots are plum and filbert, the latter having strong slender roots, the former having many: but they add that both trees must be well established to acquire these characters; also that plum is very tenacious of life. Maple, they say,
- ↑ τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος conj. Sch. from G; τῇ ὑπαρχούσῃ Ald.
- ↑ οὐδ᾽:? οὐκ W.
- ↑ Plin. 16. 127.
- ↑ ἐμβιώσῃ: cf. 3. 6. 5; C.P. 1. 2. 1.
- ↑ ἐναργῶς . . . γῇ: So G; ἐν add. W.
- ↑ βάθους conj. Sch.; βάθος Ald.
- ↑ βαθορριζότερον conj. W.; βαθυρριζότατον UMVAld.
- ↑ Proverbial for its hold on the ground; cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 441 foll.
