,534 PLINT' 3 NATUILAL HISTORY. [Book XVII. 



In the same way, too, 63 to prevent the vine-fretter 64 from at- 

 tacking the tree, he recommends that two congii of amnrca of 

 olives should be boiled down to the consistency of honey, after 

 which it must be boiled again with one-third part of bitumen, 

 and one-fourth of sulphur : and this should be done, he says, in 

 the open air, for fear of its igniting if prepared in- doors ; with 

 this mixture, the vine is to be anointed at the ends of the 

 branches and at the axils ; after which, no more fretters will 

 be seen. Some persons are content to make a fumigation 

 with this mixture while the wind is blowing towards the vine, 

 for three days in succession. 



Many persons, again, attribute no less utility and nutritious 

 virtue to urine than Cato does to amurca ; only they add to 

 it an equal proportion of water, it being injurious if employed 

 by itself. Some give the name of " volucre" 66 to an insect 

 which eats away the young grapes : to prevent this, they rub 

 the pruning-knife, every time it is sharpened, upon a beaver- 

 skin, and then prune the tree with it : it is recommended also, 

 that after the pruning, the knife should be well rubbed with 

 the blood of a bear. 67 Ants, too, are a great pest to trees ; 

 they are kept away, however, by smearing the trunk with red 

 earth and tar : if a fish, too, is hung up in the vicinity of the 

 tree, these insects will collect in that one spot. Another 

 method, again, is to pound lupines in oil, 68 and anoint the 

 roots with the mixture. Many people kill both ants as well 

 as moles 69 with amurca, and preserve apples from caterpillars 

 as well as from rotting, by touching the top of the tree with 

 the gall of a green lizard. 



Another method, too, of preventing caterpillars, is to make 

 a woman, 70 with her monthly courses on her, go round each 

 tree, barefooted and ungirt. Again, for the purpose of pre- 



63 At the present day, fumigations are preferred to any such mixtures 

 as those here described. Caterpillars are killed by the fumes of sulphur, 

 bitumen, or damp straw. 



64 " Convolvulus." He alludes to the vine Pyralis, one of the Lepidoptera, 

 the caterpillar of which rolls itself up in the leaves of the tree, after eating 

 away the foot-stalk. 



66 The "fly," or "winged" insect. The grey weevil, Fee thinks, that 

 eats the buds and the young grapes. G7 An absurd superstition. 



r,s This may possibly be efficacious, but the other precepts here given are 

 full of absurdity. 



69 It might possibly drive them to a distance, but would do no more. 



70 An absurd notion, very similar to some connected with the same sub- 

 ject, which have prevailed even in recent times. 



