334 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



principal food of those savage Sarmatians 

 whose hordes destroyed the Roman empire, 

 and whose barbarism nearly extinguished 

 civilization in Europe. 



This grain was cultivated in Italy in the 

 time of Columella, who mentions it as grow- 

 ing abundantly in Campania. Virgil also 

 notices it in his Georgics : 



" Sow beans and cinquefoil in a mellow soil, 

 And millet, springing from your annual toil." 



Pliny notices, that the inhabitants of Cam- 

 pania very much esteemed their millet, with 

 which they made a white pottage or gruel, 

 and also bread of a savoury and sweet taste. 

 This author says, no good husbandman will 

 sow millet in his vineyard, or among fruit- 

 trees, as it destroys the very heart of the 

 ground. 



The variety producing a black seed is not 

 a native of France, as stated in the Hortus 

 Kewensis, and other botanical works ; as 

 Pliny tells us*, that it was first brought out 

 of India into Italy, about ten years before he 

 wrote his Natural History. He observes, 

 that it was the most fruitful of all grain, as 



* Book xviii. chap. 7. 



