ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VIII. iv. 4-6 



mature. But there is also a kind which takes two 

 months ; this was brought to Achaia from Sicily ; 

 it is not however prolific nor fertile, though as 

 food it is light and sweet. There is another such 

 kind which grows in Euboea and especially in the 

 region of Karystos. There are several kinds that 

 take three months, and these, wherever they are 

 found, are light and not prolific ; their growth 

 consists of a single ' reed,' and in general they are 

 not robust. Lightest of all we may say is the 

 Politic wheat ; the Sicilian is heavier than most of 

 those imported into Hellas, but heavier still than 

 this is the Boeotian ; in proof of which it is said 

 that the athletes in Boeotia consume scarcely three 

 pints, 1 while, when they come to Athens, they easily 

 manage five. 2 The Laconian kind is also light. 

 The reason for these differences is to be found in 

 the respective soils and in the climate ; 3 for in Asia 

 not far from Bactra they say that in a certain place 

 the corn is so vigorous that the grains grow as 

 large as an olive-stone, while in the country called 

 that of the Pissatoi it is so strong that, if a man 

 eats too much of it, he bursts, which was actually the 

 fate of many of the Macedonians. 4 There is one 

 curious thing about the corn of Pontus, which is 

 an exception 5 to the rule as to the lightness of 

 crops raised in three months ; for there the hard 

 crops are those of the spring, the soft ones those 

 of the winter ; for soft kinds are exceedingly light. 

 Two sowings, as it appears, are made of all corn 



2 Trtvtf y/jLixoiviKa conj. Sch. ; TrevdrifjUcrxoiviKa M ; ir 



XoiviKa P 2 Ald.H. 3 Plin. 18. 70. 



* i.e. in Alexander's army. 



6 b.vop.o\oyovi.evov : cf. G.P. 4. 8. 2 ; Plat. Oorg. 495 A. 



iyi 



