Class VI. HELIX. SNAIL. 329 



the above. Fulvius Hirpinus* was the first 

 inventor of this luxury, a little before the civil 

 wars between Ccesar and Pompey. The snails 

 were fed with bran, and sodden wine. If we 

 could credit Varro,-\ -they grew so large that 

 the shells of some would hold ten quarts ! 

 People need not admire the temperance of the 

 supper of the younger Pliny, % which consisted 

 of only a lettuce apiece, three snails, two 

 eggs, a barley cake, sweet wine, and snow, in 

 case his snails bore any proportion in size to 

 those of Hirp'mus. 



Its name is derived not from any thing relat- 

 ing to an orchard, but from Uw^a, an operculum, 

 it having a very strong one. This seems to be 

 the species described by Pliny, lib. viii. c. 39, 

 which he says was scarce ; that it covered itself 

 with the opercle, and lodged under ground ; 

 and that it was at first found only about 

 the maritime Alps, and more lately near Ve- 

 litrae. Tab. lxxxvii. Jig. 1 . 



* Pliny, lib. x. c. 56. f De Re Rustica, lib. iii. c. 14. 



X Epist. lib. i. Epist. xr, 



