14 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBT. [Book XVIII. 



Homer 61 has remarked, with the greatest correctness, unwhole- 

 some vapours are always exhaled from rivers before the rising 

 of the sun. In hot localities, a farm-house should have a 

 northern aspect, but where it is cold, it should look towards 

 the south ; where, on the other hand, the site is temperate, the 

 house should look due east. Although, when speaking 62 of 

 the best kinds of soil, I may seem to have sufficiently discussed 

 the characteristics by which it may be known, I shall take the 

 present opportunity of adding a few more indications, employ- 

 ing the words of Cato 6 ^ more particularly for the purpose. 

 " The dwarf- elder/' says he, "the wild plum, 64 the bramble, 

 the small bulb, 65 trefoil, meadow grass, 66 the quercus, and the 

 wild pear and wild apple, are all of them indicative of a corn 

 land. The same is the case, too, where the land is black, or 

 of an ashy colour. All chalky soils are scorching, unless they 

 are very thin ; the same, too, with sand, unless it is remarkably 

 fine. These remarks, however, are more applicable to cham- 

 paign localities than declivities." 



The ancients were of opinion, that before everything, mode- 

 ration should be observed in the extent of a farm ; for it was 

 a favourite maxim of theirs, that we ought to sow the less, and 

 plough the more : such too, I find, was the opinion entertained 

 by Virgil, 67 and indeed, if we must confess the truth, it is the 

 wide- spread domains that have been the ruin 68 of Italy, and 

 soon will be that of the provinces as well. Six proprietors 

 were in possession of one half of Africa, 69 at the period when 



61 Od. v. 469. If the river has a bed of sand and high banks, it is 

 really advantageous than otherwise. 

 ; 2 In B. xvii. c. 3. 



63 Not to be found in his works which have come down to us. 



64 Prunus spinosa of Linnseus. 



65 See B. xix. c. 30 ; probably one of the genus Allium sphseroce- 

 phalum of Linnaeus. 



66 u Herba pratensis." It is not known with certainty to what plant he 

 alludes. Fee suggests that it may be the Poa pratensis, or else a phleum, 

 alopecurus, or dactylis. All the plants here mentioned by Pliny will thrive 

 in a^ calcareous soil, and their presence, as Fee remarks, is of bad augury. 



67 He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. 1, 412 :- 



Laudato ingentia rura, 



Exiguum colito 



"Praise a large farm, cultivate a small one." 

 J 8 By introducing slovenly cultivation, 



i9 That small part of it known to the Romans. Hardouin says that the 

 province of Zeugitana is alluded to, mentioned in B. v. c. 3. 



