Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 34

by Theophrastus

Of the comparative rate of growth in trees, and of the length of
their roots.

VI. Some trees are quick-growing, some slow. Quick-growing are those which grow by the waterside, as elm plane abele black poplar willow; (however some dispute about the last-named, and consider it a slow grower:) and of fruit-bearing trees, silver-fir fir oak. Quickest growing of all are …^[1] yew lakara (bird-cherry) Valonia oak Phoenician cedar maple hop-hornbeam zygia manna-ash alder Aleppo pine andrachne cornelian cherry box wild pear. But silver-fir fir and Aleppo pine bear fruit from the very first, whatever size they have attained.

While the growth and budding of most trees are irregular as regards the position in which the buds appear,^[2] the growth and budding of the silver-fir follow a regular rule, and its development afterwards is also in a regular sequence. For, when the trunk first divides, then again from the divided trunk the second division^[3] takes place in like manner, and so the tree goes on with each fresh formation of buds. In other trees not even the knots are opposite to one another, except in some few cases, as wild olive and others.^[4] Here too we find a difference in the manner of growth which belongs to all trees alike, both cultivated and wild: in some cases the growth is from the top of the shoots and also from the side=buds,^[5] as in pear pomegranate fig myrtle and the majority of trees, one may say: in some cases the growth is not from the top, but only from the side-buds, and the already existing part is pushed out^[6], further, as is the whole trunk with the upper branches. This occurs in the walnut and in the filbert as well as in other trees. In all such trees the buds end in a single leaf^[7]; wherefore it is reasonable that they should not make fresh buds and growth from this point, as they have no point of departure. (To a certain extent the growth of corn is similar; for it also regularly increases by pushing forward of the already existing part,^[8] even if the leaves are mutilated, as in corn which is bitten down by animals. Corn however does not^[9] 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.

^[10]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,^[11] 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.^[12] 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,^[13] 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^[14] than the oak,^[15] 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, has shallow roots and few of them^[16]; but manna-ash has more and they are thickly matted and run deep; Phoenician cedar and prickly cedar, they say,have shallow roots, those of alder are slender and 'plain,'^[17] as also are those of beech; for this too has few roots, and they are near the surface. Sorb, they say, has its roots near the surface, but they are strong and thick and hard to kill, though not very numerous.Such are the trees which are or are not deep-rooting.

 

1. Lacuna n text (Sch. W.). The following list of trees also appears to be in confusion, and includes some of both classes.
2. κατὰ … βλαστῶν conj. W.; κατὰ τοὺς τρόπους (corrected to τόπους) καὶ βλαστούς U; MVP insert τοὺς before βλαστούς
3. ἐκ τοῦ … πλαγίων: ? ἐκ τοῦ ἄκρου καὶ ἐκ τῶν πλαγίων βλαστῶν.cf. 3. 5. 1.
4. ἐκείνου … κατὰ conj. W.; ἐκείνου ἡ ἑτέρα σχίζεται τὰ ἴσα καὶ UAld.
5. ἄλλων: ? ἐλάας W.; I suggest ἄλλων ἐλαῶν.
6. i.e. grows without dividing. cf. Plin. 16. 100. (of different trees).
7. φύλλον perhaps conceals some other word.
8. τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος conj. Sch. from G; τῇ ὑπαρχούσῃ Ald.
9. οὐδ᾽:? οὐκ W.
10. Plin. 16. 127.
11. ἐμβιώσῃ: cf. 3. 6. 5; C.P. 1. 2. 1.
12. ἐναργῶς . . . γῇ: So G; ἐν add. W.
13. βάθους conj. Sch.; βάθος Ald.
14. βαθορριζότερον conj. W.; βαθυρριζότατον UMVAld.
15. Proverbial for its hold on the ground; cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 441 foll.
16. σφ. καὶ ὀλίγας conj. W.; σφ. κατ᾽ ὀλίγον UMV Ald.
17. i.e. not very fibrous.

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