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



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

 sown 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, 62 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 63 is 

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



CHAP. 19. (8.) ARINCA, AND OTHER KINDS OF GRAIN THAT 



ARE GROWN 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 the 

 ancients known as "adorea," winter wheat, 64 and wheat; 65 all 

 these being common to many countries. Arinca was originally 

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

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

 own peculiar kinds, known by the names of zea, 66 olyra, and 

 tiphe. 67 In Egypt, they make a fine flour from wheat of their 

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

 Those 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." 68 The grain that 

 bears this name enjoys a very considerable celebrity, as we 

 shall have occasion to state 69 on another occasion ; and it is in 

 honour of this that Homer 70 uses the expression, fyldupos 

 apovpa, and not, as some suppose, from the fact of the earth 

 giving life. 71 Amylum is made, too, from this grain, but of a 



62 Nova Carthago, or New Carthage. 



63 This fallacious opinion is shared with Galen, De Facult. Anim. 

 B. vi. c. 11. 



64 Siligo. 65 Triticum. 



65 The Triticum dicoccum, or spelt. 



67 Probably rye. See the next Chapter. 68 Semen. 



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

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



70 II. ii. c. 548 : "the land that produces zea." 



71 Not d-nb TH rjv, from " living." 



