48 PLINY's IfATUEAL HISTOUT. [Book XVIII. 



grapo and corn, this is the most profitable harvest of all for the 

 coiintri^'S that lie beyond the Padus. The rape is by no means 

 difficult to please in soil, for it will grow almost anywhere, 

 indeed wlicre nothing else can be sown. It readily derives 

 nutriment from fogs and hoar-frosts, and grows to a marvel- 

 lous size ; I have seen them weighing upwards of forty pounds.'" 

 It is prepared for table among us in several ways, and is made 

 to keep till the next crop, its fermentation'^'^ being prevented by 

 preserving it in mustard. It is also tinted with no less than 

 six colours in addition to its own, and wdth purple even ; in- 

 deed, that which is used by us as food ought to be of no other 

 colour."^ 



The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape, 

 the male and the female,'^ and have discovered a method of ob- 

 taining them both from the same seed ; for when it is sown thick, 

 or in a hard, cloggy soil, the produce will be male. The smaller 

 the seed the better it is in quality. There are three kinds of 

 rape in all ; the first is broad and flat, the second of a spherical 

 shape, and the third, to which the name of " wild" rape " 

 has been given, throws out a long root, similar in appearance 

 to a radish, with an angular, rough leaf, and an acrid juice, 

 wliich, if extracted about harvest, and mixed with a woman's 

 milk, is good for cleansing the eyes and improving defective 

 sight. The colder the weather the sweeter they are, and the 

 larger, it is generally thought ; heat makes them run to leaf. 

 The finest rape of all is that grown in the district of ISursia : 

 it is valued at as much as one sesterce''^ per pound, and, in 

 times of scarcity, two even. That of the next best quality is 

 produced on Mount Algidus. 



CHAP. 35. — THE TIJENIP. 



The turnip'^* of Amiternum, which is pretty nearly of the 



J=* This is not by any means an exaggeration. 



"* Acrimonia. 



" These coloured varieties, Fee savs, belong rather to the Erassica 

 oleracca, than to tlie Brassica rapa. It' is not improbable, from the stiuc- 

 tiirc of this passage, that Pliny means to say that the colours are artiflci- 1 

 ally priKhiccd. 



-- w-f I'l^'^^' ^^^""f ^"S to the Crucifcra, the rape is hermaphroditical. 



" NV lid horse-radish, which is divided into two varieties, the Eapha- 

 nus raphanistrum of Linnaeus, and the Cochlearia Armoracia, may possiblv 

 be meant, but then- roots bear no resemblance to the radish. 



'J^ An enormous price, apparently. 



'*■• The Brassica uapus of Linnoeiis. 



