Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

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  CHAP. 39.

  ENDIVE.

  Endive, though it cannot exactly be said to be of the same genus as the lettuce, still cannot be pronounced to belong to any other. It is a plant better able to endure the rigours of the winter than the lettuce, and possessed of a more acrid taste, though the flavour of the stalk is equally agreeable. Endive is sown at the beginning of spring, and transplanted at the end of that season. There is also a kind of spreading endive, known in Egypt as “cichorium,” of which we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere more at length.

  A method has been discovered of preserving all the thyrsi or leaves of the lettuce in pots, the object being to have them fresh when wanted for boiling. Lettuces may be sown all the year through in a good soil, well-watered and carefully manured; two months being allowed to intervene between sowing and transplanting, and two more between transplanting and gathering them when ripe. The rule is, however, to sow them just after the winter solstice, and to transplant when the west winds begin to prevail, or else to sow at this latter period, and to plant out at the vernal equinox. The white lettuce is the best adapted for standing the rigours of the winter.

  All the garden plants are fond of moisture; lettuces thrive, more particularly, when well manured, and endive even more so. Indeed, it is found an excellent plan to plant them out with the roots covered up in manure, and to keep up the supply, the earth being cleared away for that purpose. Some, again, have another method of increasing their size; they cut them down when they have reached half a foot in height, and cover them with fresh swine’s dung. It is the general opinion that those lettuces only will admit of being blanched which are produced from white seed; and even then, as soon as they begin to grow, sand from the sea-shore should be spread over them, care being taken to tie the leaves as soon as ever they begin to come to any size.

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  CHAP. 40.

  BEET: FOUR VARIETIES OF IT.

  Beet is the smoothest of all the garden plants. The Greeks distinguish two kinds of beet, according to the colour, the black and the white. The last, which is the kind generally preferred, has but very little seed, and is generally known as the Sicilian beet; just as it is the white lettuce that is held in the highest degree of esteem. Our people, also, distinguish two varieties of beet, the spring and the autumn kinds, so called from the periods of sowing; although sometimes we find beet sown in June even. This is a plant, too, that is sometimes transplanted; and it thrives all the better, like the lettuce, if the roots are well covered with manure, in a moist soil. Beet is mostly eaten with lentils and beans; it is prepared also in the same way as cabbage, with mustard more particularly, the pungency of which relieves its insipidity. Medical men are of opinion that beet is a more unwholesome vegetable than cabbage; hence it is that I never remember seeing it served at table. Indeed, there are some persons who scruple to taste it even, from a conviction that it is a food suitable only for persons of a robust constitution.

  Beet is a vegetable with twofold characteristics, partaking of the nature of the cabbage in its leaves and resembling a bulb in the root; that which grows to the greatest breadth being the most highly esteemed. This plant, like the lettuce, is made to grow to head by putting a light weight upon it the moment it begins to assume its proper colour. Indeed, there is no garden plant that grows to a larger head than this, as it sometimes spreads to a couple of feet in breadth, the nature of the soil contributing in a very considerable degree to its size: those found in the territory of Circeii attain the largest size. Some persons think that the best time for sowing beet is when the pomegranate is in flower, and are of opinion that it ought to be transplanted as soon as it has thrown out five leaves. There is a singular difference — if indeed it really exists — between the two varieties of beet, the white kind being remarkable for its purgative qualities, and the black being equally astringent. When wine in the vat has been deteriorated by assuming a flavour like that of cabbage, its original flavour is restored, it is said, by plunging beet leaves into it.

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  CHAP. 41

  CABBAGES; THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THEM.

  Cabbage and coleworts, which at the present day are the most highly esteemed of all the garden vegetables, were held in little repute, I find, among the Greeks; but Cato, on the other hand, sings the wondrous praises of the cabbage, the medicinal properties of which we shall duly enlarge upon when we come to treat of that subject. Cato distinguishes three varieties of the cabbage; the first, a plant with leaves wide open, and a large stalk; a second, with crisped leaves, to which he gives the name of “apiaca;” and a third, with a thin stalk, and a smooth, tender leaf, which with him ranks the lowest of all. Cabbages may be sown the whole year through, as we find that they are cut at all periods of the year; the best time, however, for sowing them is at the autumnal equinox, and they are usually transplanted as soon as five leaves are visible. In the ensuing spring after the first cutting, the plant yields sprouts, known to us as “cymæ.” These sprouts, in fact, are small shoots thrown out from the main stem, of a more delicate and tender quality than the cabbage itself. The exquisite palate, however, of Apicius rejected these sprouts for the table, and his example was followed by the fastidious Drusus Cæsar; who did not escape, however, the censures of his father, Tiberius, for being so over-nice. After the cymæ have made their appearance the cabbage throws out its summer and autumn shoots, and then its winter ones; after which, a new crop of cymæ is produced, there being no plant so productive as this, until, at last, it is quite exhausted by its extreme fertility. A second time for sowing cabbages is immediately after the vernal equinox, the plants of this growth being transplanted at the end of spring, that they may not run up into sprouts before coming to a top: and a third sowing takes place about the summer solstice, the transplanting being done in summer if the soil is moist, but, if too dry, in autumn. When moisture and manure are supplied in small quantities, the flavour of the cabbage is all the more agreeable, but when they are supplied in greater abundance, the plants attain a larger size. Asses’ dung is the best adapted for its growth.

  The cabbage, too, is one of those articles so highly esteemed by epicures; for which reason it will not be amiss if we speak of it at somewhat greater length. To obtain plants equally remarkable for their size and flavour, care must be taken first of all to sow the seed in ground that has had a couple of turnings up, and then to follow up the shoots as they appear above ground by moulding them up, care being taken to throw up the earth over them as they increase in luxuriance, and to let nothing but the summit appear above the surface. This kind is known as the Tritian cabbage: in money and labour it costs twice as much as any of the others.

  The other varieties of the cabbage are numerous — there is the Cumanian cabbage, with leaves that lie close to the ground, and a wide, open head; the Aricinian cabbage, too, of no greater height, but with more numerous leaves and thinner — this last is looked upon as the most useful of them all, for beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown out, peculiar to this variety. The cabbage, again, of Pompeii is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, increasing in thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are fewer in number and narrower; the great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is not able to stand the cold. The cabbage of Bruttium, on the other hand, thrives all the better for cold; the leaves of it are remarkably large, the stalk thin, and the flavour pungent. The leaves, again, of the Sabine cabbage are crisped to such a degree as to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite exhaust the stem; in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass all the others.

  There have lately come into fashion the cabbages known as the “Lacuturres;” they are grown in the valley of Aricia, where there was formerly a lake, now no longer in existence, and a tower which is still standing. The head of this cabbage is very large, and the leaves are almost withou
t number, some of them being round and smooth, and others long and sinewy; indeed, there is no cabbage that runs to a larger head than this, with the sole exception of the Tritian variety, which has a head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out its cymæ the latest of all.

  In all kinds of cabbages, hoar-frost contributes very materially to their sweetness; but it is apt to be productive of considerable injury, if care is not taken to protect the pith by cutting them aslant. Those plants which are intended for seed are never cut.

  There is another kind, again, that is held in peculiar esteem, and which never exceeds the height of an herbaceous plant; it is known by the name of “halmyridia,” from the circumstance of its growing on the sea-shore only. It will keep green and fresh during a long voyage even, if care is taken not to let it touch the ground from the moment that it is cut, but to put it into oil-vessels lately dried, and then to bung them so as to effectually exclude all air. There are some who are of opinion, that the plant will come to maturity all the sooner if some sea-weed is laid at the root when it is transplanted, or else as much pounded nitre as can be taken up with three fingers; and others, again, sprinkle the leaves with trefoil seed and nitre pounded together. Nitre, too, preserves the greenness of cabbage when cooked, a result which is equally ensured by the Apician mode of boiling, or in other words, by steeping the plants in oil and salt before they are cooked.

  There is a method of grafting vegetables by cutting the shoots and the stalk, and then inserting in the pith the seed of another plant; a plan which has been adopted with the wild cucumber even. There is another kind of wild cabbage, also, the lapsana, which has become famous since the triumphs of the late Emperor Julius, in consequence of the songs and jokes of his soldiers more particularly; for in the alternate lines sung by them, they used to reproach him for having made them live on lapsana at the siege of Dyrrhachium, and to rally him upon the parsimonious scale on which he was in the habit of recompensing their services. The lapsana is nothing more than a wild cyma.

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  CHAP. 42.

  WILD AND CULTIVATED ASPARAGUS.

  Of all the garden plants, asparagus is the one that requires the most delicate attention in its cultivation. We have already spoken at considerable length of its origin, when treating of the wild plants, and have mentioned that Cato recommends it to be grown in reed-beds. There is another kind, again, of a more uncultivated nature than the garden asparagus, but less pungent than corruda; it grows upon the mountains in different countries, and the plains of Upper Germany are quite full of it, so much so, indeed, that it was a not unhappy remark of Tiberius Cæsar, that a weed grows there which bears a remarkably strong resemblance to asparagus. That which grows spontaneously upon the island of Nesis, off the coast of Campania, is looked upon as being by far the best of all.

  Garden asparagus is reproduced from roots, the fibres of which are exceedingly numerous, and penetrate to a considerable depth. When it first puts forth its shoots, it is green; these in time lengthen out into stalks, which afterwards throw out streaked branches from the head: asparagus admits, also, of being grown from seed.

  Cato has treated of no subject with greater care than this, the last Chapter of his work being devoted to it, from which we may conclude that it was quite new to him, and a subject which had only very recently occupied his attention. He recommends that the ground prepared for it should be a moist or dense soil, the seed being set at intervals of half a foot every way, to avoid treading upon the heads; the seed, he says, should be put two or three into each hole, these being made with the dibble as the line runs — for in his day, it should be remembered, asparagus was only grown from seed — this being done about the vernal equinox. It requires, he adds, to be abundantly manured, and to be kept well hoed, due care being taken not to pull up the young plants along with the weeds. The first year, he says, the plants must be protected from the severity of the winter with a covering of straw, care being taken to uncover them in the spring, and to hoe and stub up the ground about them. In the spring of the third year, the plants must be set fire to, and the earlier the period at which the fire is applied, the better they will thrive. Hence it is, that as reed-beds grow all the more rapidly after being fired, asparagus is found to be a crop remarkably well suited for growing with them. The same author recommends, however, that asparagus should not be hoed before the plants have made their appearance above-ground, for fear of disturbing the roots; and he says that in gathering the heads, they should be cut close to the root, and not broken off at the surface, a method which is sure to make them run to stalk and die. They should be cut, he says, until they are left to run to seed, and after the seed is ripe, in spring they must be fired, care being taken, as soon as they appear again, to hoe and manure them as before. After eight or nine years, he says, when the plants have become old, they must be renewed, after digging and manuring the ground, by replanting the roots at intervals of a foot, care being taken to employ sheep’s dung more particularly for the purpose, other kinds of manure being apt to produce weeds.

  No method of cultivating this plant that has since been tried has been found more eligible than this, with the sole exception that the seed is now sown about the ides of February, by laying it in heaps in small trenches, after steeping it a considerable time in manure; the result of which is that the roots become matted, and form into spongy tufts, which are planted out at intervals of a foot after the autumnal equinox, the plants continuing to be productive so long as ten years even. There is no soil more favourable to the growth of asparagus, than that of the gardens of Ravenna.

  We have already spoken of the corruda, by which term I mean the wild asparagus, by the Greeks called “orminos,” or “myacanthos,” as well as by other names. I find it stated, that if rams’ horns are pounded, and then buried in the ground, asparagus will come up.

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  CHAP. 43.

  THISTLES.

  It really might have been thought that I had now given an account of all the vegetable productions that are held in any degree of esteem, did there not still remain one plant, the cultivation of which is extremely profitable, and of which I am unable to speak without a certain degree of shame. For it is a well-known fact, that some small plots of land, planted with thistles, in the vicinity of Great Carthage and of Corduba more particularly, produce a yearly income of six thousand sesterces; this being the way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the very four-footed brutes instinctively refuse to touch them.

  Thistles are grown two different ways, from plants set in autumn, and from seed sown before the nones of March; in which latter case they are transplanted before the ides of November, or, where the site is a cold one, about the time that the west winds prevail. They are sometimes manured even, and if such is the will of heaven, grow all the better for it. They are preserved, too, in a mixture of honey and vinegar, with the addition of root of laser and cummin — so that a day may not pass without our having thistles at table.

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  CHAP. 44.

  OTHER PLANTS THAT ARE SOWN IN THE GARDEN: OCIMUM; ROCKET; AND NASTURTIUM.

  For the remaining plants a brief description will suffice. The best time for sowing ocimum, it is said, is at the festival of the Parilia; though some say that it may be done in autumn as well, and recommend, when it is sown in winter, to drench the seed thoroughly with vinegar. Rocket, too, and nasturtium may be grown with the greatest facility either in summer or winter. Rocket, more particularly, is able to stand the cold, and its properties are quite different form those of the lettuce, as it is a great provocative of lust. Hence it is that we are in the habit of mixing these two plants in our dishes, the excess of cold in the one being compensated by the equal degree of heat in the other. Nasturtium has received that name from the smarting sensation which its pungency causes to the nostrils, and hence it is
that a certain notion of smartness has attached itself to the word, it having become quite a proverbial saying, that a sluggish man should eat nasturtium, to arouse him from his torpidity. In Arabia, it is said, this plant attains a size that is quite marvellous.

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  CHAP. 45.

  RUE.

  Rue, too, is generally sown while the west winds prevail, as well as just after the autumnal equinox. This plant has an extreme aversion to cold, moisture, and dung; it loves dry, sunny localities, and a soil more particularly that is rich in brick clay; it requires to be nourished, too, with ashes, which should be mixed with the seed as well, as a preservative against the attacks of caterpillars. The ancients held rue in peculiar esteem; for I find that honied wine flavoured with rue was distributed to the people, in his consulship, by Cornelius Cethegus, the colleague of Quintus Flamininus, after the closing of the Comitia. This plant has a great liking for the fig-tree, and for that tree only; indeed, it never thrives better than when grown beneath that tree. It is generally grown from slips, the lower end of which is inserted in a perforated bean, which holds it fast, and so nurtures the young plant with its juices. It also reproduces itself; for the ends of the branches bending downwards, the moment they reach the ground, they take root again. Ocimum is of a very similar nature to rue, except that it dries with greater difficulty. When rue has once gained strength, there is considerable difficulty in stubbing it, as it causes itching ulcerations on the hands, if they are not covered or previously protected by being rubbed with oil. Its leaves, too, are preserved, being packed in bundles for keeping.