488 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVII. 



oil, 44 what are the different varieties of the olive, in what kind 

 of soil it ought to be planted, and what is the proper aspect 

 for the olive-yard. Mago recommends that the olive should 

 be planted on declivities and in dry spots, in an argillaceous 

 soil, and between autumn and the winter equinox. If, on the 

 other hand, the soil is thick, humid, or somewhat damp even, 

 it ought to be planted between harvest and the winter solstice ; 

 advice, however, it should be remembered, applicable to Africa 

 more particularly. At the present day, it is mostly the custom 

 in Italy to plant the olive in spring, but if it is thought de- 

 sirable to do so in the autumn as well, there are only four days 

 in the forty between the equinox and the setting of the Ver- 

 giliag that are unfavourable for planting it. 45 It is a practice 

 peculiar to Africa, to engraft the olive on the wild olive only, 

 a tree which is made to be everlasting, as it were ; for when it 

 becomes old the best of the suckers are carefully trained for 

 adoption by grafting, and in this way in another tree it 

 grows young again ; an operation which may be repeated con- 

 tinuously as often as needed ; so much so, indeed, that the 

 same olive-yard will last for ages. 46 The wild olive also is 

 propagated both by insertion and inoculation. 



It is not advisable to plant the olive in a site where the 

 quercus has been lately rooted up ; for the earth-worms, known 

 as "raucae," which breed in the root of the quercus, are apt 

 to get into that of the olive. It has been found, from practical 

 experience, that it is not advisable to bury the cuttings in the 

 ground nor yet to dry them before they are planted out. Ex- 

 perience has also taught us that it is the best plan to clean an 

 old olive-yard every other year, between the vernal, equinox 

 and the rising of the Vergilige, and to lay moss about the roots ; 

 to dig holes also round the trees every year, just after the 

 summer solstice, two cubits wide by a foot in depth, and to 

 manure them every third year. 



Mago, too, recommends that the almond should be planted 

 between the setting of Arcturus 47 and the winter solstice. All 



44 B. xv. c. 6. 



45 See c. 2 of this Book, and B. rviii. c. 69. 



46 The olive is an extremely long-lived tree ; it has been known to live 

 as long as nine or ten centuries. A fragment of the bark, with a little 

 wood attached, if put in the ground, will throw out roots and spring up. 

 Hence it is not to be wondered at, that the ancients looked upon it us im- 

 mortal. 47 B. xviii. c. 74. 



