Chap. 19.] GRAIX GROWN IN THE EAST. 31 



as may be required for food. The saying is, that "barley is 

 sowu in a money-bag," because it so soon returns a profit. 

 The most prolific kind of all is that which is got in at Car- 

 thage,^" in Spain, in the month of April. It is in the same 

 month that it is sown in Celtiberia, and yet it yields two har- 

 vests in the same year. All kinds of barley are cut sooner than 

 other grain, and immediately after they are ripe; for the straw 

 is extremely brittle, and the grain is enclosed in a husk of re- 

 markable thinness. It is said, too, that a better polenta ^^ is 

 made from it, if it is gathered before it is perfectly ripe. 



CiI.\P. 19. (8.) ARINCA, AND OTHER KINDS OF GRAIN THAT 



ARE GROW^N IN THE EAST. 



The several kinds of corn are not everywhere the same ; and 

 even where they are the same, they do not always bear a simi- 

 lar name. The kinds most universally grown are spelt, by tlie 

 ancients known as **adorea," winter wheat, ^* and wheat i^'' all 

 these being common to many countries. Arinca was originally 

 peculiar to Gaul, though now it is widely diffased over Italy 



well. Egypt, too, Syria, Cilicia, Asia, and Greece, have their 

 own peculiar kinds, known by the names of zea,*^*^ olyra, and 

 tiphe." In Egypt, they make a fine flour from wheat of their 

 own growth, but it is by no means equal to that of Italy, 

 Tliose countries which employ zea, have no spelt. Zea, how- 

 ever, is to be found in Italy, and in Campania more particularly, 

 where it is known by the name of " seed."^^ The grain that 

 bears this name enjoys a very considerable celebrity, as we 

 shall have occasion to state °^ on another occasion ; and it is in 

 honour of this that Homer '"^ uses the expression, ^lidojpog 

 'j-po-jpa, and not, as some suppose, from the fact of the earth 

 giving life.''^ Amylum is made, too, from this grain, but of a 



^''- Nova. Carthago, or New Carthage. 



•'•^ This Mlacious opinion is shared with Galen, Le Facult. Anim, 

 B. vi. c. 11. 



<^* Siligo. 65 Triticum. 



^' The Triticum dicoccura, or spelt. 



*^ Probably rye. See tlie next Chapter. ^s Semen. 



^^ In c. 20, also in c. 29. This grain, which was in reality a kind of 

 spelt, received its name probably iroui having been the first cultivated. 



''^ II ii. c. 5-lS: "the land that produces zea." 



''^ Not dTTo ra ^/Ji/, from "living." 



