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Rh Most trees are fruit-bearing, but about willow black poplar and elm men hold different opinions, as was said ; and some, as the Arcadians, say that only the black poplar is without fruit, but that all the other mountain trees bear fruit. However in Crete there are a number of black poplars which bear fruit ; there is one at the mouth of the cave on mount Ida, in which the dedicatory offerings are hung, and there is another small one not far off, and there are quite a number about a spring called the Lizard's Spring about twelve furlongs off. There are also some in the hill-country of Ida in the same neighbourhood, in the district called Kindria and in the mountains about Praisia. Others again, as the Macedonians, say that the elm is the only tree of this class which bears fruit.

Again the character of the position makes a great difference as to fruit-bearing, as in the case of the persea and the date-palm. The persea of Egypt bears fruit, and so it does wherever it grows in the neighbouring districts, but in Rhodes it only gets as far as flowering. The date-palm in the neighbourhood of Babylon is marvellously fruitful; in Hellas it does not even ripen its fruit, and in some places it does not even produce any.

The same may be said of various other trees; in fact even of smaller herbaceous plants and bushes some are fruitful, others not, although the latter are

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