BOOK XIX. XXVI. 79-82 



they are a vulgar article of diet, at all events if 

 cabbage is eaten immediately after them, though 

 if the radish itself is eaten with half-ripe olives, the 

 eructation caused is less frequent and less offensive. 

 In Egypt the radish is held in remarkable esteem 

 because it produces oil, which they make from its 

 seed. The people are very fond of sowing radish 

 seed if opportunity offers, because they make more 

 profit from it than from corn and have a smaller 

 duty to pay on it, and because no plant there 

 yields a larger supply of oil. The Greeks have 

 made three kinds of radish, distinguished by diffei-- 

 ence of the leaves — the wrinkled " radish, the smooth 

 radish and third the wild kind : though the last has 

 smooth leaves, they are shorter and round, and 

 numerous and bushy ; the taste of this radish is 

 however rough, and it acts like a drug with a purga- 

 tive effect. Among the kinds mentioned before 

 however there is also a difference arising from the 

 seed, since some produce an inferior seed and some 

 an extremely small one ; but these defects only apply 

 to the wrinkled-leaf variety. Our own people have 

 made other classes — the Monte Compatri radish, 

 named from its locahty, a long and semi-transparent 

 radish, and another shaped like a turnip which they call 

 Syrian radish, about the sweetcst and most tender of 

 any, and exceptionally able to stand the winter. It 

 appears however to have been imported from Syria 

 only lately, since it is not found mentioned in the 

 authorities ; still, it lasts through the whole of the 

 winter. There is also one wild variety **, called by the 

 Greeks cerais, in the Pontus country armns, or by 

 other people leuce, and by our nation armoracia ; this 

 radish grows more leaves than root. But in testing 



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