282 PLI^y's KATTJRAL HISTOftY. [Book XV. 



known as the " posia,'" 30 the berry of which, owing to a vicious 

 method of cultivation, and not any fault on the part of Na- 

 ture, has the most flesh upon it. Next to this is the orchites, 

 which contains the greatest quantity of oil, and then, after 

 that, the radius. As these are of a peculiarly delicate nature, 

 the heat very rapidly takes effect upon them, and the amurca 

 they contain causes them to fall. On the other hand, the 

 gathering of the tough, hard-skinned olive is put off so late as 

 the month of March, it being well able to resist the effects of 

 moisture, and, consequently, very small. Those varieties known 

 as the Licinian, the Cominian, the Contian, and the Sergian, 

 by the Sabines called the " royal" 31 olive, do not turn black 

 before the west winds prevail, or, in other words, before the 

 sixth day before 32 the ides of February. At this period it is 

 generally thought that they begin to ripen, and as a most ex- 

 cellent oil is extracted from them, experience would seem to 

 give its support to a theory which, in reality, is altogether 

 wrong. The growers say that in the same degree that cold 

 diminishes the oil, the ripeness of the berry augments it; 

 whereas, in reality, the goodness of the oil is owing, not to 

 the period at which the olives are gathered, but to the natural 

 properties of this peculiar variety, in which the oil is remark- 

 ably slow in turning to amurca. 



A similar error, too, is committed by those who keep the 

 olives, when gathered, upon a layer of boards, and do not 

 press the fruit till it has thrown out a sweat ; it being the 

 fact that every hour lost tends to diminish the oil and increase 

 the amurca : the consequence is, that, according to the ordi- 

 nary computation, a modius of olives yields no more than six 

 pounds of oil. No one, however, ever takes account of the 

 quantity of amurca to ascertain, in reference to the same 

 kind of berry, to what extent it increases daily in amount. 

 Then, again, it is a very general error 33 among practical per- 

 sons to suppose that the oil increases proportionably to the 

 increased size of the berry ; and more particularly so when it 

 is so clearly proved that such is not the case, with reference to 



30 More commonly spelt " pausia." 



31 " Regia." It is impossible to identify these varieties. 

 82 8th of February. 



33 Tbis assertion of Pliny is not generally true. The large olives of 

 Spain yield oil very plentifully. 



