Note 983 — BOOK XIX. THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS.
John Bostock translation
It is not the fact that the seed of the round kind, after repeated sowings, will produce long roots. Pliny, however, has probably miscopied Theophrastus, who says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this transformation takes place when the seed is sown very thick. This assertion, however, is no more founded on truth than that of Pliny.