BOOK XVIII. X. 60-xi. 62 



from sowing. Millet (common and Italian) and 

 sesame and all the summer grains ripen within 40 days 

 of blossoming, although with considerable diircrences 

 due to soil and wcathcr; for in Egypt barley is 

 reaped in the sixth month after sowing and wheat in 

 the seventh, while in Greece barley is cut in the 

 seventh month and in the Peloponnese in the eighth, 

 and wheat even later. Grains growing on a stalk 

 form ears with a texture Hke a tuft of hairs ; in beans 

 and leguminous plants the grains are in pods shooting 

 on each side alternately. Cereals are stronger to 

 withstand ^\inter, but thc leguminous plants provide 

 a more substantial article of food. 



In wheat the grain has several coats, but barley Uusks. 

 and good emmer wheat are largely naked, and the oat 

 is especially so. Wheat has a taller stalk than barley, 

 but barley has a more prickly ear. Hard wheat, coni- 

 mon wheat " and barley are threshed on a threshing 

 floor ; thus they are also sown without the husk, just as 

 they are milled, because they are not dried first. On 

 the other hand emmer wheat, and common and 

 Italian niillet cannot be freed of husk until they have 

 becn dried, and consequcntly these grains are sown un- 

 threshed, with their husks on. People also keep ennner 

 in its little husks for sowing, and do not dry it by heat. 



XI. Of these grains the Hghtest is barley, which Weighioj 

 rarely exceeds fiftcen pounds to the peck, and beans ^^^' 

 twenty-two pounds. I''mmcr is heavier and wheat 

 hcavier still. In Egypt they make flour out of olyra,'' 

 a third kind of corn that grows there. The GalUc 

 provinces have also produced a special kind of emmer, 

 the local name for which is brace,'" while with ils it 

 is callcd scandala ; it has a very glossy grain. There 

 is also another difference in that it gives about four 



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