32 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII. 



coarser 72 quality than the kind already mentioned; 73 this, 

 however, is the only difference that is perceptible. ^ 



The most hardy kind, however, of all the grains is spelt, and 

 the best to stand the severity of the weather ; it will grow in 

 the very coldest places, as also in localities that are but half 

 tilled, or soils that are extremely hot, and destitute of water. 

 This was the earliest food of the ancient inhabitants of Latium ; 

 a strong proof of which is the distributions of adorea that 

 were made in those times, as already stated. 74 It is evident, 

 too, that the Romans subsisted for a long time upon pottage, 75 

 and not bread ; for we find that from its name of " puls," cer- 

 tain kinds of food are known, even at the present day, as " pul- 

 mentaria." 76 Ennius, too, the most ancient of our poets, in 

 describing the famine in a siege, relates how that the parents 

 snatched away the messes of pottage 77 from their weeping 

 children. At the present day, even, the sacrifices in eonformit}' 

 with the ancient rites, as well as those offered upon birthdays, 

 are made with parched pottage. 78 This food appears to have 

 been as much unknown in those days in Greece as polenta was 

 in Italy. 



CHAP. 20. WINTER WHEAT. SIMILAGO, OR FINE FLOUR. 



There is no grain that displays a greater avidity than wheat, 

 and none that absorbs a greater quantity of nutriment. "With 

 all propriety I may justly call winter wheat 79 the very choicest 

 of all the varieties of wheat. It is white, destitute of all 

 flavour, 80 and not oppressive 81 to the stomach. It suits moist 



Merely, as Fee says, from the faulty method employed in its prepa- 

 ration, as starch has, in all cases, the same physical appearance. 

 In c. 17 of this Book. w In c. 3 'of this Book. 



'Puls," like our porridge. 



76 Any food that was originally eaten with "puls," and afterwards with 

 bread, was so called, such as meat, vegetables, &c. 



" Offam." This word, which in the later writers signifies a " cake " 

 originally meant a hardened lump of porridge. 



78 Pulte fritilla. 



79 " Siligo." There are numerous contradictions in Pliny with reference 

 to this plant but it is now pretty generally agreed that it is the Triticum 

 hibernum of Linnaeus: the " froment tousselle" of the French It was 



jrmerly the more general opinion that it was identical with spelt but 

 that cannot be the case as spelt is red, and siligo is described as white. 

 S- V d d Ubtful What is the meanin S of this 



