Chap. 60.] THE PHOPER METHOD OF WATERING GARDENS. 201 



such, for instance, as that of coriander, beet, leeks, cresses, 

 mustard, rocket, cunila, nearly all the pungent plants in fact. 

 The seed, on the other hand, of orage, ocimum, gourds, 

 and cucumbers, is not so good for keeping. All the summer 

 seeds, too, last longer than the winter ones ; but scallion seed 

 is the very worst for keeping of them all. But of those, even, 

 which keep the very longest, there is none that will keep be- 

 yond four years for sowing 42 purposes, at least ; for culinary 

 purposes, they are fit for use beyond that period. 



CHAP. 59. WHAT PLANTS ARE BENEF1TTKD BY SALT WATER. 



A peculiar remedy for the maladies to which radishes, beet, 

 rue, and cunila are subject, is salt water, which has also the 

 additional merit of conducing very materially to their sweet- 

 ness and fertility. Other plants, again, are equally benefitted 

 by being watered with fresh water, the most desirable for the 

 purpose being that which is the coldest and the sweetest to 

 drink : pond and drain-water, on the other hand, are not so 

 good, as they are apt to carry the seeds of weeds along with 

 them. It is rain, 43 however, that forms the principal aliment 

 of plants ; in addition to which, it kills the insects as they 

 develope themselves upon them. 



CHAP. 60. (12.) THE PKOPKtt METHOD OF WATERING GARDENS, 



The proper times 44 for watering are the morning and the 

 evening, to prevent the water from being heated^ 5 by the sun ; 

 with the sole exception, however, of ocimum, which requires 

 to be watered at midday ; indeed, this plant, it is generally 

 thought, will grow with additional rapidity, if it is watered 

 with boiling water when sown. All plants, when trans- 



42 This is certainly not true with reference to the leguminous and gra- 

 mineous plants. It is pretty generally known as a fact, that wheat bus 

 germinated after being buried in the earth two thousand years : mummy- 

 wheat, at the present day, is almost universally known. 



43 Rain-water, if collected in cisterns, and exposed to the heat of the 

 sun, is the most beneficial of all ; rain has the effect also of killing nume- 

 rous insects which have bred in the previous drought. 



44 From Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 5. Evening is generally preferred to 

 morning for this purpose ; the evaporation not being so quick, and the 

 plant profiting more from the water. 



45 it should, however, be of a middling temperature, and warmed to 

 some extent by the rays of the sun. 



