338 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



27 Now as food is both liquid and solid, and the 

 liquid food of bees is pure water, it should be pro- 

 vided for them to drink. This should be near their 

 hives and should flow past in a stream, or form a 

 pool the depth of which, however, must not exceed 

 two or three finger-breadths, and in this stream or 

 pool bits ^ of pot or small stones should be placed 

 standing a little above the surface, so that the bees 

 can alight on them and drink. In this matter you 

 must be most careful to see that the water is pure, 

 as this is of the utmost importance for the making 



28 of good honey. As all weathers do not permit them 

 to go far afield in search of food, food should be 

 made ready for an emergency, for fear lest, being 

 weather-bound, they may have to live on honey 

 alone, or, when they have finished ^ it all, quit the 



marjoram; (3) not so good, but still excellent: rosemary and 

 cunila (a kind of wild marjoram); (4) producing honey of 

 fairly good flavour: the blossom of the tamarisk and jujube 

 tree ; while the worst honey is produced from (5) esparto grass, 

 arbutus, cabbages, and other plants which receive manure. 

 Aristotle (v, 22 middle) says that bees get honey from all plants 

 which have flowers enclosed in a cup : <^i.pu S' dird Travruiv /) 

 fiikiTTa oaa iv koXvki dvOei. 



^ Testae. There is, I think, little doubt but that Vergil had 

 this passage before him when he wrote (Georg., iv, 25): 

 In medium seu stabit iners seu profluet humor 

 Tranversas salices et grandia conice saxa: 

 Pontihus ut crehris possint consistere, et alas 

 Pandere ad aestivum solem; si forte morantes 

 Sparserit aut praeceps Neptuno immerserit Eurus. 

 ^ Exinanitas. This is Keil's interpretation, to which objec- 

 tion may be made that the antithesis is then false and that 



