By the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks. 149 



away the sun ; and windows (Specularia*) to resist cold ; so 

 common was the use of this material for windows, that the 

 glazier, or person who fitted the panes, had a name, and was 

 called Specularius. 



On the epigrams the following remarks present themselves. 

 The first in all probability described a Peach-house, the word 

 Pallida, which is meant as a ridicule upon the practice, gives 

 reason for this supposition ; we all know that Peaches grown 

 under glass, cannot be endowed either with colour or with 

 flavour, unless they are exposed by the removal of the lights, 

 from the time of their taking their second swell, after stoning, 

 to the direct rays of the sun : if this is not done, the best 

 sorts are pale green when ripe, and not better than turnips 

 in point of flavour, but it is not likely that a Roman Hot- 

 house should, in the infancy of the invention, be furnished 

 with moveable lights as ours are. The Romans had Peaches 

 in plenty, both hard and meltingf. The flesh of the hard 

 Peaches adhered to the stones as ours do, and were pre- 

 ferred in point of flavour to the soft onesj. 



The second epigram refers most plainly to a Grape-house, 

 but it does not seem to have been calculated to force the 

 crop at an earlier period than the natural one ; it is more 

 likely to have been contrived for the purpose of securing a 

 late crop, which may have been managed by destroying the 

 first set of bloom, and encouraging the Vines to produce a 

 second. The last line of the epigram, which states the office 

 of the house to be that of compelling the winter to produce 

 autumnal fruits, leads much to this opinion. 



* Quamvis Coenationem, velis et Specularibus mutuant. Seneca. 

 f Pliny, lib. xv. sect. 34. i Pliny, lib. xv. sect. 11. 



