Arbutus 



Pliny's name of ' unedo ' was supposed to mean that 

 he who ate one would never eat another, but Italian 

 peasants do eat it when it is quite ripe. Both leaves 

 and fruit seem to have been a favourite food of 

 goats — ' dulcis depulsis arbutus haedis' {Ec. iii. 82). 

 Virgil makes bees feed on it {Ge. iv. 181), but the 

 flowers come too late in the year to be of much use 

 for honey. The bark of the stems is very rough, 

 and to this VirgiPs epithet alludes. Hurdles were 

 made of the wood {Ge. i. i65). 



In our gardens the tree will grow to the height 

 of ten feet, and in autumn displays both flowers and 

 ripe fruits. 



Flower, autumn. 



Italian names, Albatro and Corbezzolo. 



AVENA AND AVENA StERILIS. 



' urit enim campum lini seges, urit avenae ' (Ge. i. 77). 

 ''""^' steriles nascuntur avenae ' {Ec. v. 37). 

 ' steriles dominantur avenae ' {Ge. i. 154). 



The two plants are of different species, but the 

 Romans gave them one name, and held that the 

 wild oat (Avena fatua) was a degeneracy from the 

 cultivated oat (A. sativa), or from barley. 



The oat is not a plant of southern climates, and in 

 the central peninsula was probably cultivated only 

 in Cisalpine Gaul, where Virgil, as a boy, must have 

 seen it, and on the northern slopes of the Apennines. 

 He was thus able to confirm the observation of 

 Theophrastus that it ' runs ' or exhausts the soil. 



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