48 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. [Book XVIII. 



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

 countries that lie beyond the Padus. The rape is by no means 

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

 indeed where 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. 73 

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

 to keep till the next crop, its fermentation 74 being prevented by 

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

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

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

 colour. 75 



The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape, 

 the male and the female, 76 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 77 

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

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

 which, 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 Kursia : 

 it is valued at as much as one sesterce 78 per pound, and, in 

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

 produced on Mount Algidus. 



CHAP. 35. THE TUENIP. 



The turnip 78 * of Amiternum, which is pretty nearly of the 



73 This is not by any means an exaggeration. 



74 Acrimonia. 



75 These coloured varieties, Fee says, belong rather to the Brassica 

 oleracea, than to the Brassica rapa. It is not improbable, from the struc- 

 ture of this passage, that Pliny means to say that the colours are artifici- 

 ally produced. 



' 6 In reality, belonging to the Crucifera, the rape is hermaphroditical. 



77 Wild horse-radish, which is divided into two varieties, the Rapha- 

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

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



78 An enormous price, apparently. 

 78 * The Brassica napus of Linnaeus. 



