Small, lofty, straggling, thick, that is as to foliage, dark, light,
russet, branched at the top; some directed towards the eye, some
downwards; with white stems; this transparent in the air, that not;
some standing close together, some scattered.
The relative thickness of the branches to the trunk (393--396).
394.
All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put
together are equal in thickness to the trunk [below them].
All the branches of a water [course] at every stage of its course,
if they are of equal rapidity, are equal to the body of the main
stream.
395.
Every year when the boughs of a plant [or tree] have made an end of
maturing their growth, they will have made, when put together, a
thickness equal to that of the main stem; and at every stage of its
ramification you will find the thickness of the said main stem; as:
_i k_, _g h_, _e f_, _c d_, _a b_, will always be equal to each
other; unless the tree is pollard--if so the rule does not hold
good.
All the branches have a direction which tends to the centre of the
tree _m_.
[Footnote: The two sketches of leafless trees one above another on
the left hand side of Pl. XXVII, No. 1, belong to this passage.]
396.
If the plant n grows to the thickness shown at m, its branches will
correspond [in thickness] to the junction a b in consequence of the
growth inside as well as outside.
The branches of trees or plants have a twist wherever a minor branch
is given off; and this giving off the branch forms a fork; this said
fork occurs between two angles of which the largest will be that
which is on the side of the larger branch, and in proportion, unless
accident has spoilt it.
[Footnote: The sketches illustrating this are on the right hand side
of PI. XXVII, No. I, and the text is also given there in facsimile.]
397.
There is no boss on branches which has not been produced by some
branch which has failed.
The lower shoots on the branches of trees grow more than the upper
ones and this occurs only because the sap that nourishes them, being
heavy, tends downwards more than upwards; and again, because those
[branches] which grow downwards turn away from the shade which
exists towards the centre of the plant. The older the branches are,
the greater is the difference between their upper and their lower
shoots and in those dating from the same year or epoch.
[Footnote: The sketch accompanying this in the MS. is so effaced
that an exact reproduction was impossible.]
398.