Holus 



The basket would serve for letting whey out of 

 curdled milk. 



Flower, May to July. 



Italian names, Altea, Benefisci, and Mal- 

 vaccione, 



Holus. 



' rarum . . . holus ' (Ge. iv. 130). 



This is a general name for kitchen garden stuff, 

 and ' holitor ' was a greengrocer. Virgil's epithet 

 means that the plants were set in rows. 



In Italy, especially in the south, vegetables play 

 a larger part in the people's diet than with us. The 

 volcanic soil round Naples grows them excellently, 

 and in Taranto I have seen a heap of lettuce eight 

 feet high. Virgil names endive, celery, garlic, 

 cucumber, and caladium. Among others that he 

 must have known would be cabbage, turnip, lettuce, 

 nettle, onion, and globe artichoke. One of them 

 might be alexanders, whose bright green leaves 

 are conspicuous on the Dover cliffs. Little more 

 than a century ago Abercrombie gave directions 

 for growing and blanching it, but it has now dropped 

 out of use. Having tried it, I can hardly say that it 

 deserved a better fate. 



Hordeum. 



* fragili . . . hordea culmo ' (Ge. i. 317; cf. ib. 210). 

 Barley (Hordeum vulgare) was probably of Eastern 

 origin, and must have come early into cultivation. 

 In Palestine it was made into bread, and the tcpiOtvbs 



55 



