36 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTOBY. [Book XVIII, 



wheat, if the soil is favourable, as at Byzacium, 1 a champaign 

 district of Africa, will yield as much as one hundred and fifty 2 

 modii of grain. The procurator of the late Emperor Augustus 

 sent him from that place a fact almost beyond belief little 

 short of four hundred shoots all springing front a single grain ; 

 and we have still in existence his letters on the subject. In 

 a similar manner, too, the procurator of 'Nero sent him. three 

 hundred and sixty stalks all issuing from a single grain. 3 The 

 plains of Leontium in Sicily, and other places in that island, 

 as well as the whole of Bastica, and Egypt more particularly, 

 yield produce a hundred-fold. The most prolific kinds of 

 wheat are the ramose wheat, 4 and that known as the " hun- 

 dred-grain " 5 wheat. Before now, as many as one hundred 

 beans, too, have been found on a single stalk. 



CHAP. 22. SESAME. ERYSIHUM, OR IEIO. HOBMINT7M. 



"We have spoken 6 of sesame, millet, and panic as belonging 

 to the summer grains. Sesame 7 comes from India, where they 

 extract an oil from it ; the colour of its grain is white. 

 Similar in appearance to this is the erysimum of Asia and 

 Greece, and indeed it would be identical with it were it not 

 that the grain is better filled. 8 It is the same grain that is 

 known among us as " irio ;" and strictly speaking, ought rather 

 to be classed among the medicaments than the cereals. Of the 

 same nature, too, is the plant called "horminum" 9 by the 

 Greeks, though resembling cummin 10 in appearance; it is sown 

 at the same time as sesame : no animal will eat either this or 

 irio while green. 



CHAP. 23. THE MODE OF GKINDING CCfKN. 



All the grains are not easily broken. In Etruria they first 



1 See B. xvii. c. 3. 



We M? WO v- n0 SUC1 J fruitfulness ^ this in the wheat of Europe 

 StfSteSl 1 " S> 1S theutmostamouilt of Produce thatcan P be" 



*in F -tem A insta f n n 6 7 f 16 ,?' 92 > and 63 stalks Arising from a single 

 gram, b 1 these fall far short of the marvels here mentioned by 



or'S^r f Linn * US '' <**** ** originally 

 n'T^vi , Probabl > T the sa ^e as the last. 

 n C ,uius 0fthlSB 0k - 'Seec.10. 



10 Se? B. xix. c. 47 ; and B. xx. c. 57. y mcntloned in c - 10 - 



