394 -D?". Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



It would be difficult to conceive a more gross misrepresentation of the real fact 

 than that contained in the preceding sentences, which were peant as a paraphrase 

 on the account of Columella the younger himself. Speaking of the Roman sheep, 

 that author had remirked that white fleeces were most valuable, because thev 

 could be coloured; but coloured fleeces could not be made white.* He says, 

 however, that the latter were also worthy of praise, as, for example, " the pulla," 

 or blackish fleeces of Pollentia in Italy ; the " fusca," or tawny of Boetica in 

 Corduba, and the " rutila," the reddish or golden of Asia. He then adds, 

 " experience also has taught us how to obtain other varieties in this race of 

 " animals ; for when, among other beasts, wild rams of an extraordinary colour were 

 " brought to Cadiz from the neighbouring woods of Africa by the purveyors, Marcus 

 " Columella, my paternal uncle, a man of quick parts, and a celebrated farmer, 

 " brought some to his fields, and having tamed them, introduced them to his 

 *' Tarentinc, or fine woolled ewes. From this first union sprang ram-lambs with 

 " coarse wool, but of the paternal colour. These being again p\u to ewes like the 

 " former, generated rams with a still finer fleece; which being in the same way 

 " coupled with the I'arentine ewes, universally produced lambs, which united with 

 " all the softness and fineness of the wool of the mother, the colour of that of the 

 " father and grandfather. " Sed et alias varietates in hoc pecoris genere docuit 

 " usus exprimere. Nam cum in municipiuni Gaditanum ex vicino Africas miri 

 " coloris silvestres ac feri arietes sicut alise bestiae muncrariis deportarentur, 

 " M. Columella, patruus mens, acrrs vir ingenii, atque illustris agricola, quos- 

 " dam mercatus in agros translulit, et mansuefactos tectis ovibus admisit. Eec 

 " primum hirtos, sed paterni coloris agnos ediderunt, qui deinde et ipsi Taren- 

 " tinis ovibus impositi, tenuioris velleris arietes progeneraverunt. Ex his rursus 

 " quicquid conceptuin est, maternam mollitiem, paternum et avituin retulit 

 " colorem." 



It appears, therefore, that far from attempting, according to the assertion of the 

 Encyclopedist, to produce white and fine woolled posterity by uniting rams of a 



• Color albiis, cum sit optlmus, turn etlam est utilissimus, quod ex eo plurimi fiunt, neque 

 hie ex alio. Sunt ctiam suaptc luitura prttio commendabilcs puUus atque fuscus quos pra,bciit in 

 Italia Pollentia, in Boetica Corduba. Ncc minus Asia rutilos, quos vocant i^uS^y;, L. J. M. 

 ColumellK de Re Rustica lib. vii. cap. 2. 



