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CHAP. 10.—PLANTS WHICH ARE PROPAGATED BY SEED.

It is Nature herself that has taught us most of these methods, and more particularly that of sowing seed, as it was very soon evident how the seed on falling to the ground revived again in germination. Indeed, there are some trees that are capable of being propagated in no other way, the chesnut1 and the walnut, for instance; with the sole exception, of course, of such as are employed for coppice wood. By this method, too, as well as the others, some trees are propagated, though from a seed of a different nature, such, for instance, as the vine, the apple, and the pear;2 the seed being in all these cases in the shape of a pip, and not the fruit itself, as in that of the chesnut and the walnut. The medlar, too, can also be propagated by the agency of seed. All trees, however, that are grown by this method are very slow in coming to maturity,3 degenerate4 very rapidly, and must often be renewed by grafting: indeed, the chesnut even sometimes requires to be grafted.

1 Virgil says, Georgics ii. 14: "Pars autem posito surgunt de semine; ut altæ
Castaneæ nemorumque Jovi quæ maxime frondet."

2 This method of reproduction is seldom or never employed; plants or cuttings only being used for the purpose.

3 Besides which, it is doubtful if they will reproduce the variety, the seed of which was originally sown.

4 In some cases, they are more particularly liable to disease—the apple, for instance.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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  • Cross-references to this page (3):
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), OLLA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), GALLAE´CIA
    • Smith's Bio, Justi'nus
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