306 pliny's natural history. [Book XV. 



the way already pointed out. 36 There are some who assign to 

 each apple or pear its separate vessel of clay, and after care- 

 fully pitching the cover, enclose it again in a larger vessel : 

 occasionally, too, the fruit is iDlaced on a layer of flocks of 

 wool, or else in baskets, 37 with a lining of chaff and clay. 

 Other persons follow a similar plan, but use earthen plates for 

 the purpose ; while others, again, employ the same method, 

 but dig a hole in the earth, and after placing a layer of sand, 

 lay the fruit on top of it, and then cover the whole with dry 

 earth. Persons, too, are sometimes known to give quinces a 

 coating of Pontic- 8 wax, and then plunge them in honey. 



Columella 39 informs us, that fruit is kept by being carefully 

 put in earthen vessels, which then receive a coating of pitch, and 

 are placed in wells or cisterns to sink to the bottom. The people 

 of maritime Liguria, in the vicinity of the Alps, first dry their 

 grapes in the sun, 40 and wrap them up in bundles of rushes, 

 which are then covered with plaster. The Greeks follow a 

 similar plan, but substitute for rushes the leaves of the plane- 

 tree, or of the vine itself, or else of the fig, which they dry 

 for a single day in the shade, and then place in a cask in 

 alternate layers with husks 41 of grapes. It is by this method 

 that they preserve the grapes of Cos and Eerytus, which are 

 inferior to none in sweetness. Some persons, when thus pre- 

 paring them, plunge the grapes into lie-ashes the moment they 

 take them from the vine, and then dry them in the sun ; they 

 then steep them in warm water, after which they put them to 

 dry again in the sun : and last of all, as already mentioned, 

 wrap them up in bundles formed of layers of leaves and grape 

 husks. There are some who prefer keeping their grapes in 

 sawdust, 43 or else in shavings of the fir-tree, poplar, and ash : 

 while others think it the best plan to hang them up in the 

 granary, at a careful distance from the apples, directly after the 

 gathering, being under the impression that the very best cover- 

 ing for them as they hang is the dust 43 that naturally arises 



36 In a pit two feet deep, &c. See above. 37 Capsae, 



38 g ee ij, xxi. c . 49. 39 Be Ee Eust. B. xii. c. 43. 



40 These must make raisins of the sun. 



41 These must have been perfectly dry, or else they would tend to rot 

 the grapes or raisins. 



42 Columella, for instance, B. xii. c. 43. 



13 The dust is in reality very liable to spoil the fruit, from the tenacity 



