34 pliny's natueal histoet. [Book XVIII, 



wlieat, yields twenty- two pounds of bread ; while that of Italy, 

 if made into bread baked in tins,^^ will yield two or three 

 pounds more. When the bread is baked in the oven,^« two 

 pounds must be added in weight in either case. 



(10.) Wheat yields a fine flour^' of the very highest quality. 

 In African wheat the modius ought to yield half a modius of 

 line Hour and five sextarii of pollen, that being the name 

 given to fine wheat meal, in the same way that that of winter 

 wheat is generally known as " flos," or the " flower." This 

 fine meal is extensively used in copper works and paper manu- 

 factories. In addition to the above, the modius should yield 

 four sextarii of coarse meal, and the same quantity of bran. 

 The finest wheaten flour will yield one hundred ''^ and twenty- 

 two pounds of bread, and the fine meal of winter wheat one 

 hundred ^^^ and seventeen, to the modius of grain. When the 

 prices of grain are moderate, meal sells at forty asses the mo- 

 dius, bolted wheaten flour at eight asses more, and bolted 

 flour of winter wheat, at sixteen asses more. There is another 

 distinction again in fine wheaten flour, which originated for- 

 merly in the days of L. Paulus. There were three classes of 

 wheat ; the first of which would appear to have yielded seven- 

 teen pounds of bread, the second eighteen, and the third nine- 

 teen pounds and a third : to these were added two pounds and 

 a half of seconds, ^^ and the same quantity of brown^^ bread, 

 with six sextarii of bran. ^- 



Winter wheat never ripens all at once, and yet there is none 

 of the cereals that can so ill brook any delay ; it being of so 

 delicate a nature, that the ears directly they are ripe will begin 

 to shed their grain. So long, however, as it is in stalk, it is 

 exposed to fewer risks than other kinds of wheat, from the fact 



" •* Artopticio." See c. 27 of this Book. 



»* Without tin, probably •, or the tin bread may have been baked 

 before tlie fire, similar to the method adopted at the present day with the 

 American (jvens. 



^'■' " Siniilai,r()." Founders still use meal occasionally for making moulds ; 

 It IS also cniploj-ed in making paper. 



^ The mention of "hundreds" here is evidently f^iultv, unless the other 

 part of tlic passage is corrupt. Fe'e suggests twenty- two and twenty seven. 

 IJut above we find him stating that "secundarius," "seconds" 

 Hour, and cibarms," or "coarse," meal, are the same thino-. His con- 

 tradictions cannot apparently be reconciled. 



« The whole of this passage, as Brotier remarks, is evidently corrupt. 



