228 



VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



abundant, because those which were not required for 

 human food could be given with much advantage to 

 cattle; and both Pliny and he concur in their testi- 

 mony, that this produce was esteemed next to corn in 

 utility and value. The best grew in the country of 

 the Sabines, and were worth at Rome a sestertius or 

 two-pence each.* 



Flowers and Pods of the Turnip. 



It is averred that the Roman method of cultivation 

 must have been superior to that of the moderns, since 

 Pliny relates that some single roots weighed as much 

 as forty pounds, a weight far surpassing any which 

 has been obtained by the most skilful modern agricul- 

 turists. Indeed, the large size of the Roman turnip 

 is supposed by some authors to furnish a collateral 

 proof of the colder temperature of Italy in ancient than- 



* Hist. Nat., lib. 18, c. 13, lib. 19, c. 5. 



