ROOK XIX. x.\.wan, i28-.\.\.\ix. 131 



an illness, thanks to the sagacity of his dootor, Musa, 

 was cured by lettuce, which had been refused him 

 by lhe excessive scruples of his previous doctor, 

 Gaius AemiHus ; tliis was such a good advertisement 

 for lettuces that the method was then discovercd of 

 keeping them into the months when they are out of 

 scason, pickled in honey-vinegar. It is also bcheved 

 that lettuces increase the blood-supply. 



There is also a variety called the goat-lettuce of 

 wliich we shall speak among drugs ; and only quite xx. 68. 

 rcccntly there has begun to be introduccd among the 

 cultivated h'ttuces a kind held in considerable esteem 

 called the CiHcian lettuce, which has the leaf of the 

 Cappadocian kind, only crinkly and broader. 



XXXIX. Endive cannot be said to belong either oihfradvice 

 to the same class of plant as lettuce or to another gardening.' 

 (lass, being better able to endure the winter and 

 having more acridity of flavour; but its stalk is 

 equally agreeable. It is sown after the spring 

 equinox, and the seedHngs are bedded out at the end 

 of the spring. There is also a wild cndive called 

 in Egypt chicory, about which more will be said 

 elsewhere. A method has been discovered ofxx. 73, 

 preserving all the stalks or leaves of lettuces by'^^^'^^' 

 storing them in pots and boiHng them in saucepans 

 while fresh. Lettuces can be sown all the year 

 round in favourable soil that is watered by streams and 

 manured, with two months between sowing and bed- 

 ding out and two between that and maturity. The 

 regular plan, however, is to sow just after mid-winter 

 and to bed out when the west wind sets in, or else to 

 sow thcn and bcd out at the spring equinox. Wliite 

 lettuce stands the winter best. All garden plants 

 are fond of moisture and manure, especially lettuce, 



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