In one variety of the apple-tree[2456] we find a small leaf protruding from the very middle of the fruit, sometimes, indeed, a couple of them. Then, again, in some trees the leaves are arranged all round the branches, and in others at the extremities of them, while in the robur they are found upon the trunk itself. They are sometimes thick and close, and at others thinly scattered, which is more particularly the case where the leaf is large and broad. In the myrtle[2457] they are symmetrically arranged, in the box, concave, and, upon the apple, scattered without any order or regularity. In the apple and the pear we find several leaves issuing from the same stalk, and in the elm and the cytisus[2458] they are covered with ramified veins. To the above particulars Cato[2459] adds that the leaves of the poplar and the quercus should not be given to cattle after they have fallen and become withered, and he recommends the leaves of the fig,[2460] the holm-oak, and the ivy for oxen: the leaves, too, of the reed and the laurel are sometimes given them to eat. The leaves of the service-tree fall all at once, but in the others only by degrees. Thus much in reference to the leaves. CHAP. 39. (25.)—THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE PRODUCTION OF PLANTS. The following is the order in which the operations of Nature take place throughout the year. The first is fecundation, which takes place when the west wind begins to prevail, generally about the sixth day before the ides of February.[2461] By the agency of this wind all the productions of the earth are impregnated; to such an extent, indeed, that the mares even in Spain are impregnated by it, as we have already stated.[2462] This is the generating principle of the universe, and it receives its name of Favonius, as some think, from our word “fovere,” which means “to warm and cherish:” it blows from due west at the opening of the spring. The peasantry call this period of the year the “time of heat,”[2463] because Nature is then longing to receive the seeds of her various productions, and is imparting life to everything that is planted. The vegetables conceive[2464] on various days, each according to its respective nature: some immediately, as with animals, others, again, more slowly, carrying with them for a longer period the produce of their conception, a state which has from that circumstance obtained the name of “germination.” When the plant flowers, it may be said to bring forth, and the flower makes its appearance by bursting its little capsule, which has acted to it as an uterus. The period of training and education is the growth of the fruit. This, as well as that of germination, is a laborious process. CHAP. 40.—TREES WHICH NEVER BLOSSOM. THE JUNIPER.