BOOK XIX 



I. An account of the constellations, seasons and Beiwpen 

 weather has now been «jiven that is easy even for non- "^l^l^^horlTcui- 

 experts to understand does not leave anv room for ''"'<■ <"0''"'f 

 doubt ; and for those who really understand the matter 

 the countryside contributes to our knowledge of the 

 heavens no less than astronomy contributes to agri- 

 culture. Many writers have made horticulture " the 

 next subject ; we however do not think the time has 

 come to pass straight to those topics, and we are 

 surprised that some persons seeking from these 

 subjects the satisfaction of knowledge, or a reputation 

 for learning, have passed over so many matters with- 

 out making any mention of all the phmts that grow of 

 their own accord or from cultivation, especially in 

 view of the fact that even greater importanee attaches 

 to ver>' many of these, in point of price and of practi- 

 cal utiHty, than to the cereals. And to begin with importance 

 admitted utilities and with commodities distributed 'nJriijitii^^n 

 not onlv throujrhout all lands but also over the seas : "sHnHng 



<i • ' 1 1 • /• 111 "'* emptre. 



riax is a plant that is grown rrom seed and tnat cannot 

 be included either among cereals or among garden 

 plants ; but in what department of Hfe shall we not 

 ineet with it, or what is more marvellous than the 

 fact that there is a plant which brings * Egypt so close 

 to Italy that of two governors of Egypt Galerius 

 reached Alexandria froin the vStraits of Messina in 

 seven days and BaH:)illus in six, and that in the suminer a.d. 55. 



421 



