FOOTNOTES:

1In B. ii. c. 63.

2Of course this is only mere declamation; it is not probable that the animals have any notion at all ofsharpeningthe weapons that nature has given; in addition to which, this mode of sharpening them against hard substances would only wear away the enamel, and ultimately destroy them. The acts of animals in a moment of rage or frenzy have evidently been mistaken here for the dictates of instinct, or even a superior intelligence.

3See B. xxv. c. 25, and B. xxvii. c. 76.

4In B. viii. c. 36. 41, 42. The works of the ancients, Fée remarks, are full of these puerilities.

5This sentiment is not at all akin to the melancholy view which our author takes of mankind at the beginning of B. vii. and in other parts of this work. It is not improbable that his censures here are levelled against some who had endeavoured to impede him in the progress of his work.

6“Arvorum sacerdotes,” the priests of the fields.

7Or foster-mother. It has been suggested that the Rogations of the Roman church may have possibly originated in the Ambarvalia, or ceremonial presided over by the Arval priesthood.

8Made of salt and the meal or flour of spelt. Salt was the emblem of wisdom, friendship, and other virtues.

9This, Fée observes, is not the case with any kind of wheat; with manioc, which has an acrid principle, the process may be necessary, in order to make it fit for food.

10Or Feast of the Furnace or Oven. See Ovid’s Fasti, B. ii. l. 5-25.

11Called the Terminalia. See Ovid’s Fasti, B. ii. l. 641,et seq.

12Tertullian, De Spect. i. 16, calls this goddess by the name of Sessia.

13Cœlius Rhodiginus, Turnebus, and Vossius, conjecture that the name of this goddess, who might only he named in the field, was Tutelina. Hardouin thinks that it was Segesta, here mentioned.

14Four Roman feet in width, and 120 in length.

15Quartarius.

16“Faba,” a bean; “Lens,” a lentil; and “Cicer,” a chick-pea.

17A “bubus,” from “oxen.” Caius Junius Bubulcus was twice Consul, and once Master of the Horse.

18“Farreum” was a form of marriage, in which certain words were used, in presence of ten witnesses, and were accompanied by a certain religious ceremony, in which “panis farreus” was employed; hence this form of marriage was called “confarreatio.”

19Farreum.

20De Re Rust. Preface.

21See B. xxxiii. c. 13.

22St. Augustin, De Civ. Dei., mentions a goddess, Bubona, the tutelar divinity of oxen. Nothing seems to be known of these games.

23See B. xxxiii. c. 13. Macrobius says that it was Janus.

24Table vii. s. 2.

25On the “Nundinæ,” or ninth-day holiday: similar to our market-days. According toourmode of reckoning, it was everyeighthday.

26From “ador,” the old name for “spelt:” because corn was the chief reward given to the conqueror, and his temples were graced with a wreath of corn.

27In the first place, it is difficult to see what there is in this passage to admire, or “wonder at,” if that is the meaning of “admiror;” and then, besides, it has no connection with the context. The text is probably in a defective state.

28See c.69of this Book.

29“Vagina.” The meaning of this word here has not been exactly ascertained. It has been suggested that the first period alludes to the appearance of the stalk from its sheath of leaves, and the second to the formation of the ear.

30A.U.C.298.

31See B. xxxiv. c. 11.A.U.C.317.

32Nundinis.

33On the road to Ostia. It was said to have received its name from the Horatii and Curiatii.

34A.U.C.345.

35A.U.C.550. He alludes to the introduction of Cybele, from Pessinus in Galatia, in the Second Punic war.

36A.U.C.604. See B. viii. c. 6.

37Manius Curius Dentatus, ConsulA.U.C.464.

38A.U.C.497.

39From “sero,” to sow. See the Æneid, B. vi. l. 844, where this circumstance is alluded to.

40“Prata Quintia.” Hardouin says that in his time this spot was still calledI Prati: it lay beyond the Tiber, between the vineyard of the Medici and the castle of Sant Angelo.

41He alludes to the twofold meaning of the word “coli,” “to be tilled,” or “to receive homage from.”

42“Ergastulorum.” The “Ergastula” were places of punishment attached to the country houses of the wealthy, for the chastisement of refractory slaves, who were usually made to work in chains.

43In the First Book, as originally written. This list of writers is appended in the present Translation to each respective Book.

44This is probably written in humble imitation of the splendid exordium of the Georgics of Virgil.

45De Re Rust. Preface.

46Fée remarks, that we still recruit our armies mostly from the agricultural class.

47De Re Rust. c. 1.

48Quoted by Columella, De Re Rust. B. i. 4. The sad fate of Regulus is known to all readers of Roman history.

49From Columella, B. i. c. 3.

50De Re Rust. c. 1.

51It is still thought so in France, Fée says, and nothing has tended more than this notion to the depreciation of the prices of wine.

52Hence the usual Latin name, “prata.”

53“Si sat bene.” Cicero, De Officiis, B. ii. n. 88, gives this anecdote somewhat more at length.

54De Re Rust. c. 2.

55“Alienâ insaniâ frui.” We have a saying to a similar effect: “Fools build houses, and wise men buy them.”

56“Frons domini plus prodest quam occipitium.” See Cato, De Re Rust. c. 4; also Phædrus, B. iv. Fab. 19.

57Cato, c. 3. Varro and Columella give the same advice.

58See B. iii. c. 9.

59Sylla the Fortunate, the implacable enemy of Marius.

60Because, though the last comer, he had obtained the best site in the locality.

61Od. v. 469. If the river has a bed of sand and high banks, it is really advantageous than otherwise.

62In B. xvii. c. 3.

63Not to be found in his works which have come down to us.

64Prunus spinosa of Linnæus.

65See B. xix. c.30; probably one of the genus Allium sphærocephalum of Linnæus.

66“Herba pratensis.” It is not known with certainty to what plant he alludes. Fée suggests that it may be the Poa pratensis, or else a phleum, alopecurus, or dactylis. All the plants here mentioned by Pliny will thrive in a calcareous soil, and their presence, as Fée remarks, is of bad augury.

67He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. l. 412:———Laudato ingentia rura,Exiguum colito——“Praise a large farm, cultivate a small one.”

67He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. l. 412:—

——Laudato ingentia rura,Exiguum colito——

——Laudato ingentia rura,

Exiguum colito——

“Praise a large farm, cultivate a small one.”

68By introducing slovenly cultivation.

69That small part of it known to the Romans. Hardouin says that the province of Zeugitana is alluded to, mentioned in B. v. c. 3.

70And reside on the farm.

71Villicus.

72De Re Rust. c. 5.

73A.U.C.737.

74Probably because it entailed too great an expense. It may have been deeply mortgaged: otherwise it is not clear why the heir refused to take it, as he might have sold a part.

75He means to say that it is so much labour lost, as it will take care of itself; but this is hardly in accordance with his numerous directions given in B. xv. Virgil, Geor. B. ii. 421,et seq., speaks of the olive as requiring no attention when it has once taken root.

76See B. xvii. c. 3.

77In throwing away money and labour upon land that does not require it.

78Virgil, Georg. I. 268,et seq., speaks of the work that might be done on feast days—making hedges, for instance, irrigating land, catching birds, washing sheep, and burning weeds.

79“Ne familiæ male sit.”

80In B. xvii. c. 3.

81The Pteris aquilina, or female fern. No such juices drop from it as here mentioned by Pliny, Fée says.

82A superstition quite unworthy of our author; and the same with respect to that mentioned in the next line.

83Sub-soil drainage is now universally employed, with the agency of draining-tiles, made for the purpose.

84The flower of the lupine could not possibly produce any such effect; and the juice of cicuta, or hemlock, in only a very trifling degree.

85This word answers to the Latin “frumenta,” which indicates all those kinds of corn from which bread was prepared by the ancients.

86See c.59of this Book.

87Triticum hibernum of Linnæus, similar to the “siligo” mentioned in the sequel. Winter wheat was greatly cultivated in Apulia.

88“Far.” This name is often used in the classics, to signify corn in general; but in the more restricted sense in which it is here employed, it is “Triticum dicoccum,” the “Zea” of the Greeks. It consists of two varieties, the single grained, the Triticum monococcum of Linnæus, and the double-grained, the Triticum spelta of Linnæus, which is still called “farra” in Friuli.

89Hordeum sativum of Linnæus.

90See c.66of this Book.

91Panicum Italicum of Linnæus.

92Panicum miliaceum of Linnæus. This was probably one of the first grains from which bread was made.

93The Sesamum orientale of Linnæus. It is no longer cultivated in Europe, though formerly it was much used in Greece.

94It is very doubtful if this is the same as clary, the Salvia horminum of Linnæus, as that is one of the Labiatæ, whereas here, most probably, a leguminous plant is spoken of.

95It has been asserted that this is identical with the Sisymbrium polyceratium of Linnæus, rock-gentle, rock-gallant, or winter-cress. Fée, however, is strongly of opinion that it can only be looked for in the Sisymbrium irio of Linnæus.

96Ervum lens of Linnæus.

97The Cicer arietinum of naturalists, the Garbanzo of the Spaniards. It abounds in the south of Europe and in India.

98A variety of spelt was called by this name; but it was more generally applied to a kind of flummery, pottage or gruel.

99Hence our word “forage.”

100Lupinus hirsutus and pilosus of Linnæus.

101From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 2.

102All this, of course, depends upon numerous circumstances.

103This is certainly the fact, as Fée says, but it is the same with all the graminea.

104A characteristic of the Panicum miliaceum in particular.

105Or porridge; “puls.”

106It has been suggested that this was maize, but that is indigenous to South America. Fée has little doubt that it is the Holcus sorgho of Linnæus, the “Indian millet,” that is meant.

107From the Greekφόβη. The stalk and husk of the sorgho is covered with a fine down. The reading “cornis” has been adopted.

108This is considered by Fée to be very improbable.

109In reality these vary, according to the rapidity of the growth.

110Strictly speaking, spelt has seven.

111This depends upon the time when it is sown, and numerous other circumstances.

112Strictly speaking, he is right; but still there is a swelling in the stalk, to be perceived at the points where the leaves take their rise.

113This is incorrect; they all of them throw out leaves from the root.

114The same as the “Ervum” probably, the fitch, orobus, or bitter vetch.

115Not so with the pea, as known to us.

116This is only true at the end of the season, and when the plant is dying.

117These annuals lose their leaves only that have articulations on the stem; otherwise they die outright at the fall of the leaf.

118If by “tunica” he means the husk of chaff, which surrounds the grain, the assertion is contrary to the fact, in relation to barley and the oat.

119Only another name, Fée thinks, for the Triticum hibernum, or winter-wheat. Spelt or zea has been suggested, as also the white barley of the south of Europe; see c.20.

120Egyptian wheat, or rather what is called mummy-wheat, is bearded equally to barley.

121Siligo.

122Before grinding.

123Oats and rye excepted.

124Here the word “far” means “a meal,” or “flour,” a substitute for that of “far,” or “spelt.”

125Triticum monococcum, according to some. Fée identifies it with the Triticum spelta of Linnæus.

126A variety, probably, of the Triticum hibernum of Linnæus, with white grains; the white-wheat of the French, from which the ancient Gauls made their malt; hence the French word “brasser,” to “brew.”

127From Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iv.

128That of the Ukraine and its vicinity, which is still held in high esteem.

129Panis militaris.

130To the modius of wheat.

131He alludes to beer, or sweet-wort. See B. xiv. c. 29.

132He alludes to yeast. See B. xxii, c.82.

133This assertion, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 4, is not based on truth. It is possible that he may allude in reality to some other gramineous plant.

134Trimestre.

135Bimestre.

136Columella (B. ii. c. 6) doesnotstate to this effect; on the contrary, he speaks of the existence of a three months’ wheat; but he asserts, and with justice, that wheat sown in the autumn is better than that sown in March.

137If he alludes here to what Theophrastus says, his assertion is simply that, in Bactria, the grains are as large as an olive-stone.

138There is no wild barley in India at the present day.

139Porridge, or fermenty.

140Oryza sativa of Linnæus.

141Like our rice-milk, probably. See B. xxii. c.26.

142They are not carnose or fleshy, but thin, and similar to those of the reed.

143On the contrary, it is tough and fibrous.

144The barley was, originally, the prize given to the victor in the Eleusinian games.

145Or “barley-fed.”

146Theἀλφίτονof the Greeks.

147This, as Fée observes, would tend to give it a very disagreeable flavour.

148“Acetabulum.”

149Similar to our pearl barley, probably.

150“Anguli.” Dalechamps interprets this as two rows of grain; but Fée thinks that it signifies angles, and points. The Polygonum fagopyrum of Linnæus, he says, buck-wheat, or black-wheat, has an angular grain, but he doubts whether that can possibly be the grain here alluded to.

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