BOOK XVIII. XXXIV. 130-.XXXV1. 133 



radish, and an angular leaf witli a rough surface and 

 an acid juice which if extracted at harvest time and 

 mixed ^nth a woman's milk makes an eye-wash and 

 a cure for dim sight. They arc bcUeved to grow 

 sweeter and bigger in cold weather ; warm weather 

 makes them run to leaves. The prize goes to turnip 

 grown in the Norcia district — it is priced at a sestcrce 

 per pound, and at two sesterces in a time of scarcity — 

 and the next to those grown on Monte Compatri ; 

 XXXV. but the prize for navews goes to those grown Navewand 

 at San \'ettorino. Navews have almost the same """''• 

 nature as turnips : they are equally fond of cold 

 places. They are sown even before the first of March, 

 4 sixteenths of a peck in an acre. The more careftil 

 growers recommend ploughing five tinies before 

 sowing navew and four timcs for turnip, and manuring 

 the ground in both cases ; and they say that turnip 

 grows a finer crop if thc seed is ploughed in with 

 some chafF. They advise that the sower should strip 

 fof the work, and should offcr a prayer in thc words, 

 I sow for myself and my neighboui'S.' For both 

 these kinds sowing is properly done botween the 

 hohdays " of two deities, Neptune and Vulcan, and 

 as a result of careful obscrvation it is said that these 

 seeds give a wonderfully fine crop if they are sown 

 on a day that is as many days after the beginning of 

 the period specified as the moon was old when the 

 first snow fell in the preceding winter. In warm and 

 damp locahties turnip and navew are also sown in 

 spring. 



XXXVI. The next most extensively used plant is Luj>ine,iu 

 the lupine, as it is shared by men and hoofed quad- ^^nwe' 

 rupeds in common. To prevent its escaping the taituand 

 reapers by jumping out of the pod the best remedy is pKferencea. 



273 



