CHAPTER XI 



THE PEA-WEEVIL: THE EGGS 



TV/TAN holds the pea in high esteem. 



**** Ever since the days of antiquity, he 

 has tried, by devoting greater and greater 

 attention to its cultivation, to make it 

 produce larger, tenderer and sweeter vari- 

 eties. The adaptable plant, gently entreated, 

 has complied with his desires and has ended 

 by giving us what the gardener's ambition 

 aimed at obtaining. How far we moderns 

 have progressed beyond the crop of the 

 Varros * and Columellas, 2 how far, above 

 all, beyond the original peas, beyond the wild 

 seeds confided to the soil by the first man 

 who thought of scraping the earth, may- 



1 Marcus Terentius Varro (B.C. u6 Circa B.C. 27), a 

 famous Roman scholar, author of De Re rustica and for 

 some time director of the public library. Translator's 

 Note. 



2 Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (fl. ist century 

 A.D.), author of a work, De Re rustica, bearing the same 

 title as Varro's. Translator's Note. 



229 



