Chap. 47.] MEDICAMENTS FOE TEEES. 533 



salt, only in a more modified degree ; for which reason it is, 

 that fig-trees are sprinkled with them ; as also with rue, 56 to 

 keep away worms, and to prevent the roots from rotting. 

 What is still more even, it is recommended to throw salt 57 

 water on the roots of vines, if they are too full of humours ; 

 and if the fruit falls off, to sprinkle them with ashes and 

 vinegar, or with sandarach if the grapes are rotting. 58 If, 

 again, a vine is not productive, it should be sprinkled and 

 rubbed with strong vinegar and ashes ; and if the grapes, in- 

 stead of ripening, dry and shrivel up, the vine should be lopped 

 near the roots, 59 and the wound and fibres drenched with strong 

 vinegar and stale urine; after which, the roots should be 

 covered up with mud annealed with these liquids, and the 

 ground spaded repeatedly. 



As to the olive, if it gives promise of but little fruit, the 

 roots should be bared, and left exposed to the winter cold, 60 a 

 mode of treatment for which it is all the better. 



All these operations depend each year upon the state of the 

 weather, and require to be sometimes retarded, and at other 

 times precipitated. The very element of fire even has its own 

 utility, in the case of the reed for instance ; which, after the 

 reed-bed has been burnt, will spring up all the thicker and 

 more pliable. 61 



Clato, 62 too, gives receipts for certain medicaments, speci- 

 fying the proportions as well ; for the roots of the large trees 

 he prescribes an amphora, and for those of the smaller ones, 

 an urna, of amurca of olives, mixed with water in equal pro- 

 portions, recommending the roots to be cleared, and the 

 mixture to be gradually poured upon them. In addition to 

 this, in the case of the olive and the fig, he recommends that 

 a layer of straw should be first placed around them. In the 

 fig, too, more particularly, he says that in^ spring the roots 

 should be well moulded up ; the result of which is, that the 

 fruit will not fall off while green, and the tree will be all the 

 more productive, and not affected with roughness of the bark. 



56 Without any efficacy, beyond a doubt. 



57 The action of salt upon vegetation is, at the best, very uncertain. 

 ,s These recipes are Avorthless, and almost impracticable. 



59 This method is still adopted, but with none of the accessories here 

 mentioned by Pliny. 



60 A dangerous practice, Fee remarks, and certainlv not to be adopted. 



61 Mlt) or- 9z De ft e Rust. 93. 



