BOOK XV. XVII. 58-xviii. 60 



the quality of wines, and like wine they are avoided 

 by doctors in the treatment of the sick. Boiled in 

 wine and water they make a sort of jam, as does no 

 other fruit except the quince and the sparrow- 

 apple. 



XVIII. In reg-ard to keeping fruit it is universally Methodsof 

 recommended that fruit-lofts should be constructed ^^"^•''^* 

 in a cool and dry place, with boarded floors and win- 

 dows facing north that are left open on a fine day, 

 and Mith glazed windows to keep out south winds, 

 the draught from a north-east wind also spoiling the 

 appearance of the fruit by making it shrivelled ; that 

 apples should be gathered after the autumn equinox, 

 and not before the 16th day of the moon nor later 

 than the 28th, nor on a rainy day, nor till an hour after 

 sunrise ; that windfalls should be kept separate ; 

 that the fruit should have a bed of close-packed straw 

 or of chaff underneath, and should be placed far 

 apart so that the spaces between the rows may admit 

 a uniform draught. It is said that the Ameria 

 apple is the best keeper and the honey-apple the 

 worst. It is recommended that quinces should be 

 stored in a place kept shut up, from which all draughts 

 are excluded, or else that they should be boiled or 

 soaked in honey. Pomegranates should be hardened 

 in boiUng sea-water and then dried in the sun for 

 three days and hung up in such a way as to be pro- 

 tected from the dew at night, and when wanted for 

 use they should be thoroughly washed in fresh water. 

 Marcus Varro recommends keeping them in large 

 jars of sand, and also while they are unripe covering 

 them with earth in pots with the bottom broken out 

 but with all air shut out from them and with their 

 stalk smeared with pitch, as so kept they grow to an 



329 



