Page:The Works of Aristotle - Vol. 6 - Opuscula (1913).djvu/96

others wild, in the same way as animals. I think, too, that all species of plants which are not cultivated become wild. Some plants produce fruit, others do not; some bear flowers, others do not; some have leaves and not others; some plants shed their leaves, others do not. Plants differ greatly in their large or small size, in beauty and ugliness, and in the excellence, or the contrary, of their fruits. Trees in a wild state bear more fruit than garden trees, but the fruit of the garden tree is better than that of the wild. Some plants grow in dry places, some in the sea, others in rivers. Plants which grow in the Red Sea will there reach a great size, whereas they are only small in other places.^[1] 820^a Some plants grow on the banks of rivers, others in standing water. Of plants which grow in dry places, some grow on mountains, others in the plain; some plants grow and flourish in the most arid districts, as, for example, in the land of the Ethiopians which is called Ziara,^[2] and increase there better than anywhere else. Some plants live at high altitudes, some on moist ground, others in dry, others equally well in either, as, for instance, willow and tamarisk. A plant changes very much with a difference of locality, and such variations must be taken into consideration.

5A plant which is fixed in the ground does not like to be separated from it. Some places are better for certain plants than others; similarly some fruits are better in one place than in another. In some plants the leaves are rough, in others smooth; in some they are small, in others they are cleft as in the vine. Some trees have a single bark, as the fig, others have several layers of bark, as in the case of the pine; some are bark throughout, as, for example, the mediannus.^[3] Some plants have joints, reeds, for example; some have thorns, like the bramble. Some have no branches, others have a great number, like the sycamore.^[4] Other plants show various differences; for instance, suckers grow from some and not from others; this can only be due to a difference in the root. Some plants^[5] have a single root

1. This statement is borne out by Strabo, p. 383 and Theophr. op. cit. 1. 4.
2. Meyer thinks that the Sahara is meant here.
3. This word is hopelessly corrupt.
4. 'Morum silvestrem pro sycomoro' (Meyer).
5. i.e. bulbs.