best. 



BOOK IX. IV. 1-3 



IV. Meanwhile, when you have chosen your bees Feedin?- 

 in accordance with the points which we have just bws^and*"^ 

 mentioned, feeding-grounds ought to be assigned to ^'^'°^ '^ 

 the bees of which you approve. These should be as 

 retired as possible and, as our Maro* directs, void of 

 cattle and with a sunny aspect as little as possible 

 exposed to storms, 



Where winds may not approach ; for winds prevent 

 The bees from bearing home their food; nor 



sheep. 

 Nor frisky kids must trample down the flowers, 

 Nor heifers wandering o'er the plain shake off 

 The dews or crush the rising blades of grass. 



The region should also be rich in small clumps, 2 

 especially thyme and marjoram and also in Greek 

 savory and our own Italian savory, which the 

 country-folk call saiureia. Next let there be plenty 

 of shrubs of larger growth, such as rosemary and 

 both kinds of trefoil (for there is one variety which is 

 sown and another which grows of its own accord), 

 also the ever-green pine and the lesser holm-oak (for 

 the taller variety is universally condemned). Ivy, 

 too, is admitted not for its other good qualities but 

 because it provides a large quantity of honey. Of 3 

 trees the following are very highly commended, the 

 red and white jujube-trees, likewise tamarisks, also 

 almond-trees and peach-trees and pear-trees, in a 

 word, so as not to waste time in naming each kind, the 

 majority of the fruit-bearing trees. Of woodland trees 

 the most suitable are the acorn-bearing oaks, also 

 terebinths and mastic-trees, which closely resemble 

 them, and lime-trees. Of all the trees of this class 



« Vergil, G^eor^. IV. 8-12. 



43,5 



