The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

BOOK XVIII.. The Natural History of Grain.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GRAIN.

CHAP. Page

1. Taste of the ancients for agriculture 1

2. When the first wreaths of corn were used at Rome 3

3. The jugerum of land 4

4. How often and on what occasions corn has sold at a remarkably low price 7

5. Illustrious men who have written upon agriculture 9

6. Points to be observed in buying land 11

7. The proper arrangements for a farm-house 13

8. Maxims of the ancients on agriculture 16

9. The different kinds of grain 19

10. The history of the various kinds of grain ib.

11. Spelt 24

12. Wheat 25

13. Barley: rice 27

14. Polenta 28

15. Ptisan 29

16. Tragum ib.

17. Amylum ib.

18. The nature of barley 30

19. Arinca, and other kinds of grain that are grown in the East 31

20. Winter wheat. Similago, or fine flour 32

21. The fruitfulness of Africa in wheat 35

22. Sesame. Erysimum or irio. Horminum 36

23. The mode of grinding corn ib.

24. Millet 38

25. Panic ib.

26. The various kinds of leaven ib.

27. The method of making bread: origin of the art 39

28. When bakers were first introduced at Rome 40

29. Alica 41

30. The leguminous plants: the bean 43

31. Lentils. Pease 46

32. The several kinds of chick-pease ib.

33. The kidney-bean 47

34. The rape ib.

35. The turnip 48

36. The lupine 49

37. The vetch 51

38. The fitch ib.

39. Silicia ib.

40. Secale or asia 52

41. Farrago: the cracca ib.

42. Ocinum: ervilia ib.

43. Lucerne 53

44. The diseases of grain: the oat 54

45. The best remedies for the diseases of grain 57

46. The crops that should be sown in the different soils 59

47. The different systems of cultivation employed by various nations 60

48. The various kinds of ploughs 62

49. The mode of ploughing ib.

50. The methods of harrowing, stubbing, and hoeing, employed for each description of grain. The use of the harrow 66

51. Extreme fertility of soil 67

52. The method of sowing more than once in the year 68

53. The manuring of land ib.

54. How to ascertain the quality of seed 69

55. What quantity of each kind of grain is requisite for sowing a jugerum 71

56. The proper times for sowing 72

57. Arrangement of the stars according to the terrestrial days and nights 74

58. The rising and setting of the stars 77

59. The epochs of the seasons 78

60. The proper time for winter sowing 79

61. When to sow the leguminous plants and the poppy 81

62. Work to be done in the country in each month respectively ib.

63. Work to be done at the winter solstice 82

64. Work to be done between the winter solstice and the prevalence of the west winds 83

65. Work to be done between the prevalence of the west winds and the vernal equinox 84

66. Work to be done after the vernal equinox 86

67. Work to be done after the rising of the Vergiliæ: hay-making 88

68. The summer solstice 92

69. Causes of sterility 97

70. Remedies against these noxious influences 101

71. Work to be done after the summer solstice 102

72. The harvest 103

73. The methods of storing corn 104

74. The vintage, and the works of autumn 107

75. The revolutions of the moon 111

76. The theory of the winds 113

77. The laying out of lands according to the points of the wind 114

78. Prognostics derived from the sun 117

79. Prognostics derived from the moon 119

80. Prognostics derived from the stars 120

81. Prognostics derived from thunder 121

82. Prognostics derived from clouds ib.

83. Prognostics derived from mists 122

84. Prognostics derived from fire kindled by man ib.

85. Prognostics derived from water ib.

86. Prognostics derived from tempests 123

87. Prognostics derived from aquatic animals and birds ib.

88. Prognostics derived from quadrupeds 124

89. Prognostics derived from plants 125

90. Prognostics derived from food ib.

BOOK XIX.. The Nature and Cultivation of Flax, and an Account of Various

THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS.

1. The nature of flax—marvellous facts relative thereto 129

2. How flax is sown: twenty-seven principal varieties of it 131

3. The mode of preparing flax 135

4. Linen made of asbestos 136

5. At what period linen was first dyed 138

6. At what period coloured awnings were first employed in the theatres ib.

7. The nature of spartum 139

8. The mode of preparing spartum 140

9. At what period spartum was first employed 141

10. The bulb eriophorus ib.

11. Plants which spring up and grow without a root—plants which grow, but cannot be reproduced from seed 142

12. Misy; iton; and geranion 143

13. Particulars connected with the truffle 144

14. The pezica ib.

15. Laserpitium, laser, and maspetum ib.

16. Magydaris 147

17. Madder 148

18. The radicula ib.

19. The pleasures of the garden 149

20. The laying out of garden ground 154

21. Plants other than grain and shrubs 155

22. The natural history of twenty different kinds of plants grown in gardens—the proper methods to be followed in sowing them respectively ib.

23. Vegetables of a cartilaginous nature—cucumbers. Pepones 156

24. Gourds 158

25. Rape. Turnips 161

26. Radishes 162

27. Parsnips 165

28. The skirret 166

29. Elecampane 167

30. Bulbs, squills, and arum 168

31. The roots, flowers, and leaves of all these plants. Garden plants which lose their leaves 170

32. Varieties of the onion 171

33. The leek 173

34. Garlic 174

35. The number of days required for the respective plants to make their appearance above ground 177

36. The nature of the various seeds 178

37. Plants of which there is but a single kind. Plants of which there are several kinds 179

38. The nature and varieties of twenty-three garden plants. The lettuce; its different varieties 180

39. Endive 182

40. Beet: four varieties of it 183

41. Cabbages; the several varieties of them 185

42. Wild and cultivated asparagus 188

43. Thistles 190

44. Other plants that are sown in the garden: ocimum; rocket; and nasturtium 191

45. Rue ib.

46. Parsley 192

47. Mint ib.

48. Olusatrum 193

49. The caraway 194

50. Lovage ib.

51. Dittander 195

52. Gith ib.

53. The poppy 196

54. Other plants which require to be sown at the autumnal equinox 197

55. Wild thyme; sisymbrium ib.

56. Four kinds of ferulaceous plants. Hemp 198

57. The maladies of garden plants 199

58. The proper remedies for these maladies. How ants are best destroyed. The best remedies against caterpillars and flies 200

59. What plants are benefitted by salt water 201

60. The proper method of watering gardens ib.

61. The juices and flavours of garden herbs 202

62. Piperitis, libanotis, and smyrnium 203

BOOK XX.. Remedies Derived From the Garden Plants.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE GARDEN PLANTS.

1. Introduction 206

2. The wild cucumber: twenty-six remedies 207

3. Elaterium: twenty-seven remedies 208

4. The anguine or erratic cucumber: five remedies 209

5. The cultivated cucumber: nine remedies 210

6. Pepones: eleven remedies 211

7. The gourd: seventeen remedies. The somphus: one remedy 212

8. The colocynthis: ten remedies ib.

9. Rape: nine remedies 213

10. Wild rape: one remedy 214

11. Turnips; those known as bunion and bunias: five remedies ib.

12. The wild radish, or armoracia: one remedy 215

13. The cultivated radish: forty-three remedies ib.

14. The parsnip: five remedies. The hibiscum, wild mallow, or plistolochia: eleven remedies 218

15. The staphylinos, or wild parsnip: twenty-two remedies ib.

16. Gingidion: one remedy 219

17. The skirret: eleven remedies 220

18. Sile, or hartwort: twelve remedies 221

19. Elecampane: eleven remedies 222

20. Onions: twenty-seven remedies ib.

21. Cutleek: thirty-two remedies 223

22. Bulbed leek: thirty-nine remedies 225

23. Garlic: sixty-one remedies ib.

24. The lettuce: forty-two remedies. The goat-lettuce: four remedies 228

25. Cæsapon: one remedy. Isatis: one remedy. The wild lettuce: seven remedies ib.

26. Hawk-weed: seventeen remedies 229

27. Beet: twenty-four remedies 232

28. Limonion, or neuroides: three remedies 233

29. Endive: three remedies ib.

30. Cichorium or chreston, otherwise called pancration or ambula: twelve remedies 234

31. Hedypnoïs: four remedies ib.

32. Seris, three varieties of it: seven remedies borrowed from it 235

33. The cabbage: eighty-seven remedies. Recipes mentioned by Cato ib.

34. Opinions of the Greeks relative thereto 237

35. Cabbage-sprouts 239

36. The wild cabbage: thirty-seven remedies 240

37. The lapsana: one remedy 241

38. The sea-cabbage: one remedy ib.

39. The squill: twenty-three remedies ib.

40. Bulbs: thirty remedies 243

41. Bulbine: one remedy. Bulb emetic 244

42. Garden asparagus; with the next, twenty-four remedies 245

43. Corruda, libycura, or orminum ib.

44. Parsley: seventeen remedies 246

45. Apiastrum, or melissophyllum 247

46. Olusatrum or Hipposelinon: eleven remedies. Oreoselinon: two remedies. Helioselinon: one remedy 248

47. Petroselinon: one remedy. Buselinon: one remedy ib.

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