I] THE SEVENTH PERIOD 77 



necessity — and this makes such a difference that 



plants which come up in seven days if sown before 



I the solstice, hardly come up in forty if sown 



! later. And they are of opinion that you should not 



• begin before the equinox, because, if bad weather 



sets in, the seeds generally rot. Beans are best 



2 sown at the time of the setting of the Pleiads; while 



between the autumnal equinox and the setting of the 



Pleiads, your grapes must be picked and the vintage 



I made. Then one must begin to prune the vines and 



propagate, and plant fruit trees. In some districts, 



where the hard frosts set in comparatively early, it 



is better to do these things in the spring-time. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



THE SEVENTH PERIOD 



N* the seventh period, between the setting of the 

 Pleiads and the winter solstice, the following things 

 are to be done, we are told. 



Plant lilies and crocus. 



To form a rose-plantation take a plant which has 

 already' struck root, and cut the stem, beginning 

 at the root, into slips a palm-breadth long, then 



' Quae iam egit, etc. Cf. Geoponica, xi, 18. "Others take 

 them (rose trees) up with the roots, then cut into three-inch 

 lengths the roots and what has grown from them, and plant 

 the cuttings at a distance of a cubit from one another." 



