and herbs and are called bushes,[1] some are herbs, and some are vegetables. Almost every plant falls under one of these classes. A tree is a plant which has a stem growing from its root, from which stem numerous branches grow, olive-trees, for example,[2] and fig-trees. A plant which is something between a tree and a small herb, and is called a bush, has many branches growing out of its roots, like the thorn-tree[3] and bramble. Vegetables are plants which have a number of stems growing out of one root and a number of branches, rue, for example, and cabbage. Herbs are plants which have no stem, but their leaves grow out of their roots. Some plants are produced and dry up every year, wheat, for example, and vegetables. We can only indicate these various classes of plants by general inferences, and by giving examples and descriptions. Some plants verge on two very different classes, mallow,[4] for example (since it is both a herb and a vegetable), and likewise beet. Some plants grow at first in the form of low bushes[5] and afterwards become trees, as, for instance, the nut-tree, the chaste-tree, and the plant called 'goatberry.'[6] Perhaps myrtles, apple-trees, and pear-trees fall also under this class, for all of them have a number of superfluous stems growing from their roots. It is worth while to specify these that they may serve for purposes of example and inference, but we must not investigate the definitions of every kind of plant.
Some plants are indoor plants, others garden plants, and
- ↑ Ambrachion, which the Greek version translates θάμνος, is otherwise unknown, but its meaning is clear from the context.
- ↑ Reading ut for et.
- ↑ Magnus cannae is ingeniously explained by Meyer. Theophr. l. c. has οἷον βάτος καὶ παλίουρος: the thorn-tree being unknown to the Arabs they translated παλίουρος by moǵânas el-'henna, 'that which resembles 'henna (=Lawsonia inermis)': the Latin translator misunderstanding this expression transliterated it into magnus cannae.
- ↑ Meyer shows by comparison with the parallel passage of Theophr. l. c. 2, that mallow is here intended, and that olus regium has arisen from a confusion of two Arabic words malûkîa ('mallow') and mulukijja ('royal').
- ↑ Granorum plantae, in Arabic habbât, has been confused with the Arabic chabî ('low growing').
- ↑ Theophr. l. c. has here uyios, KITTHS, and f] HpaKXe&JTi/o) Kapvn. According to Meyer fingekest is the Persian for vitex (=ἄγνος), vovet is a corruption of the Arabic fufel (=avellana Indica) and bacca caprarum represents κιττός, 'ivy'. Ivy, however, can hardly be said to grow into a tree.
