30 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



of food in the early ages. Virgil recommends the young 

 twigs for goats in winter : 



" Jubeo frondentia capris 



Arbuta sufficere." 



It was used in basket-work : 



" Arbutese crates, et mystica vannus lacchi." 



Arbutus and oak formed the bier of the young Pallas, 

 the son of Evander : 



" Haud segnes alii crates et molle pheretrum 

 Arbuteis texunt virgis et vimine querno, 

 Extructosque toros obtentu frondis inumbrant." 



Virgil, ^neis, lib. xi. 



" Others, with forward zeal, weave hurdles, and a pliant bier of 

 arbute rods, and oaken twigs, and with a covering of boughs shade 

 the funeral bed high-raised." — Davidson's Translation. 



Horace, too, speaks of it, and celebrates its shade : 



" Nunc viridi membra sub arbuto 

 Stratus." 



Millar, after giving some of these quotations, adds, " I 

 hope we shall no more have the classical ear wounded by 

 pronouncing the second syllable of Arbutus long, instead 

 of the first." This little ebulHtion of impatience, natural 

 enough to a person who knew the right pronunciation, 

 would have pleased his friend Dr. Johnson, who speaks 

 of him somewhere as " Millar, the great gardener." 



Some species of the Arbutus, from being mere shrubs, 

 are better adapted for the present purpose than the 

 beautiful one called the Common Strawberry-tree, which 

 is the best known in our gardens; as the Painted-leaved, 



