Page:Enquiry into plants (Volume 1).pdf/135

 of plants too there is a class which cannot grow except in moisture, while others will indeed grow on dry land, but they lose their character and are inferior. Again of all trees, one might almost say, and of all plants there are several forms to each kind; for hardly any kind contains but a single form. But the plants which are called respectively cultivated and wild shew this difference in the clearest and most emphatic way, for instance the cultivated and wild forms of fig olive and pear. In each of these pairs there are differences in fruit and leaves, and in their forms and parts generally. But most of the wild kinds have no names and few know about them, while most of the cultivated kinds have received names and they are more commonly observed; I mean such plants as vine fig pomegranate apple pear bay myrtle and so forth; for, as many people make use of them, they are led also to study the differences.

But there is this peculiarity as to the two classes respectively; in the wild kinds men find only or chiefly the distinction of 'male' and 'female,' while in the cultivated sorts they recognise a number of distinguishing features. In the former case it is easy to mark and count up the different forms, in the latter it is harder because the points of difference are numerous.

However we have said enough for study of the differences between parts and between general characters. We must now speak of the methods of growth, for this subject comes naturally after what has been said.