From Empedocles to Theophrastus j 225225 225
Rather than apply a sexual theory based on date palms to figs, Theophrastus chose the
reverse strategy. He applied his open fig theory to date palms. According to the four humors
theory, the “dust” from the male tree must somehow cause drying of the moist female date,
stimulating it to grow. Thus, according to Theophrastus, the dust of date palms performs the
same physiological function as the fig wasp does during caprification, causing the drying of
the fruit.
In view of his ultimate rejection of the sexual theory, it is surprising that Theophrastus
concluded his discussion of date palms by making a very apt biological analogy between
pollination and the sprinkling of milt by male fish onto the newly laid eggs of the
female:“What occurs in the date- palm, while not the same as caprification, nevertheless bears
a certain resemblance to it, which is why the procedure is called olyntházein (f rom
ólynthos, the edible wild fig). For the flower and dust and down from the male date-
palm, when sprinkled on the fruit, effect by their heat and the rest of their power a
certain dryness and ventilation, and by this means the fruit remains on the tree.
Something similar in a way to this seems to happen with fish, when the male sprinkles
his milt on the eggs as they are laid. But resemblances can be found in things widely
separate.^46The reference to milt shows just how close Theophrastus came to correctly interpreting
date palm pollination as a sexual process. Backing away from brink of apostasy to safer
ground, he hastily added: “But resemblances can be found in things widely separate.”Theophrastus on “Degeneration” in Fruit Trees
Cultivated plants were thought to have been given to the Greeks by the gods. However, the
belief arose that under certain conditions, one species could transform (or “degenerate”)
into another. Thus, when a few wheat plants grew up in a field of barley, it was thought
that barley had “degenerated” into wheat. The possibility that a few wheat grains might
have become mixed in with the barley grains during sowing was apparently not seriously
considered.
Although the supposed “degeneration” of barley into wheat or some other cereal was
entirely specious, there was one example of crop “degeneration” in Theophrastus’s day that
actually had a basis in fact: the “degeneration” of cultivated fruit trees grown from seed.
Here is how Theophrastus describes the phenomenon:All trees grown from seed are as a rule inferior, at least among the cultivated fruit trees
(as in pomegranate, fig, vine, and almond); some indeed often undergo a mutation of
their entire kind and become wild.^47It is still true today, as it was in Theophrastus’s time, that most cultivated fruit and nut
trees do not breed true from seed and must therefore be propagated from cuttings. Seeds
of cultivated trees, instead of producing progeny with the same phenotype as the parent
tree, give rise to progeny with a diverse array of phenotypes. Because most of the desirable