208 pliny's natural history. [Book XIII. 



at the rising of the Dog-star, after which it speedily takes 

 possession of the whole tree. They use it in the preparation 

 of wine, and it is for this purpose that it is planted. This 

 thorn grows at Athens also, upon the Long Walls there. 29 



CHAP. 47. THE CYTISUS. 



The cytisus 30 is also a shrub, which, as a food for sheep, has 

 been extolled with wonderful encomiums by Aristomachus the 

 Athenian, and, in a dry state, for swine as well : the same 

 author, too, pledges his word that a jugerum of very mid- 

 dling land, planted with the cytisus, will produce an income 

 of two thousand sesterces per annum. It is quite as useful as 

 the ervum, 31 but is apt to satiate more speedily : very little of 

 it is necessary to fatten cattle ; to such a degree, indeed, that 

 beasts of burden, when fed upon it, will very soon take a dis- 

 like to barley. There is no fodder known, in fact, that is 

 productive of a greater abundance of milk, and of better qua- 

 lity; in the medical treatment of cattle in particular, this 

 shrub is found a most excellent specific for every kind of ma- 

 lady. Even more than this, the same author recommends it, 

 when first dried and then boiled in water, to be given to nurs- 

 ing women, mixed with wine, in cases where the milk has 

 failed them : and he says that, if this is done, the infant will 

 be all the stronger and taller for it. In a green state, or, if 

 dried, steeped in water, he recommends it for fowls. Both 

 Democritus and Aristomachus promise us also that bees will 

 never fail us so long as they can obtain the cytisus for food. 

 There is no crop that we know of, of a similar nature, that 

 costs a smaller price. It is sown at the same time as barley, 

 or, at all events, in the spring, in seed like the leek, or else 

 planted in the autumn, and before the winter solstice, in the stalk. 

 When sown in grain, it ought to be steeped in water, and if 



29 The Makron Teichos. See B. iv. c. 11. 



30 From the various statements of ancient authors, Fee has come to the 

 conclusion that this name was given to two totally different productions. 

 The cytisus which the poets speak of as grateful to bees and goats, and 

 sheep, he takes to be the Medicago arborea of Linnaeus, known to us as 

 Medic trefoil, or lucerne ; while the other, a tree with a black wood, he 

 considers identical with the Cytisus laburnum of Liumeus, the laburnum, 

 or false ebony tree. 



31 A kind of vetch or tare. Sec B. xviii. 



