BOOK V. X. 11-14 



and better. You should chiefly plant the Livian," 

 African, Chalcidian,^ Fulcan,'' Lydian, Callistruthian,'* 

 Astropian/ Rhodian, Libyan and Tiburnian/ fig-trees, 

 also all those which bear a floweret twice or three 

 times a year. 



You should plant the almond-tree, since it is the 12 

 first tree to put out buds, about February 1st. It 

 requires hard, warm, dry ground ; for if you plant a 

 nut in places which have different qualities from 

 these, it generally rots. Before you put the nut in 

 the ground, soak it in honey-water, which should not 

 be too sweet ; it will then, when it comes to maturity, 

 produce fruit of a pleasanter flavour, and meanwhile 

 its foliage will grow better and quicker. Place three 13 

 nuts so as to form a ti'iangle and let them be at least 

 a hand's breadth away from one another, and let one 

 apex of the triangle face towards the West. Every 

 nut sends out one root and creeps out of the ground 

 with a single stem. When the root has reached the 

 bottom of the planting-hole, it is checked by the 

 hardness of the soil and bent back and puts forth 

 from itself other roots like the branches of a tree. 



You will be able to make an almond and a filbert 

 into a Tarentine nut in the following manner. In 14 

 the planting-hole in which you intend to sow the 

 nuts place fine soil to a depth of half a foot and set in 

 it a fennel-root. When the fennel has grown up, 

 split it and secrete in the pith of it an almond or a 



' This kind is not otherwise mentioned and the name is 

 perhaps corrupt. 



^ Book X. line 416 : so called because sparrows {arpovdol) 

 were fond of it. It was also called passeraria. 



' This kind is not otherwise mentioned and the name is 

 perhaps corrupt. 



■^ From Tibur in Latium, the modem Tivoli. 



95 



