ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, I. i. 2–3
—permanent, that is, unless it be lost by disease, age or mutilation. However some of the parts of plants are such that their existence is limited to a year, for instance, flower, 'catkin,'[1] leaf, fruit, in fact all those parts which are antecedent to the fruit or else appear along with it. Also the new shoot itself must be included with these; for trees always make fresh growth every' year alike in the parts above ground and in those which pertain to the roots. So that if one sets these[2] down as 'parts,' the number of parts will be indeterminate and constantly changing; if on the other hand these are not to be called 'parts,' the result will be that things which are essential if the plant is to reach its perfection, and which are its conspicuous features, are nevertheless not 'parts'; for any plant always appears to be, as indeed it is, more comely and more perfect when it makes new growth, blooms, and bears fruit. Such, we may say, are the difficulties involved in defining a 'part.'
But perhaps we should not expect to find in plants a complete correspondence with animals in regard to those things which concern reproduction any more than in other respects; and so we should reckon as 'parts' even those things to which the plant gives birth, for instance their fruits, although[3] we do not so reckon the unborn young of animals. (However, if such[4] a product seems fairest to the eye, because the plant is then in its prime, we can draw no inference from this in
- ↑ i.e. the male inflorescence of some trees; the term is of course wider than 'catkin'.
- ↑ i.e. flower, catkin, leaf, shoot.
- ↑ οὐδὲ γὰρ: οὐδὲ seems to mean no more than οὐ (cf. neque enim = non enim); γὰρ refers back to the beginning of the §.
- ↑ ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ὄψει τοῦτό γε I conj.; τῇ ὥρᾳ ὄψει τό γε vulg. W.; τοῦτο, i.e. flower or fruit.
