CHAPTER XI 
THE PEA-WEEVIL: THE EGGS 
M‘X holds the pea in high esteem. 
Ever since the days of antiquity, he 
has tried, by devoting greater and greater 
attention to its cultivation, to make it 
produce larger, tenderer and sweeter vari- 
eties. The adaptable plant, gently entreated, 
has complied with his desires and has ended 
by giving us what the gardener’s ambition 
aimed at obtaining. How far we moderns 
have progressed beyond the crop of the 
Varros? and Columellas,? how far, above 
all, beyond the original peas, beyond the wild 
seeds confided to the soil by the first man 
who thought of scraping the earth, may- 
1Marcus Terentius Varro (B.C. 116—Circa B.C. 27), a 
famous Roman scholar, author of De Re rustica and for 
some time director of the public library.—Translator’s 
Note. 
2Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (f. rst century 
A.D.), author of a work, De Re rustica, bearing the same 
title as Varro’s.—Translator’s Note. 
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