208 pliis-y's natural history. [BookZIII. I 
at the rising of the Dog-star, after which it speedily takes | 
possession of the whole tree. They use it in the preparation ; 
of wine, and it is for this purpose that it is planted. This | 
thorn grows at Athens also, upon the Long WaUs there.^^ | 
CHAP. 47. THE CYTISUS. 
The cytisus^^ is also a shrub, which, as a food for sheep, has 
been extolled with wonderful encomiums by Aristomachus the 
Athenian, and, in a dry state, for swine as well : the same 
author, too, pledges his word that a jugerum of very mid- 
dling land, planted with the cytisus, will produce an income 
of two thousand sesterces per annum. It is quite as useful as 
the ervum,^^ but is apt to satiate more speedily : very little of 
it is necessary to fatten cattle ; to such a degree, indeed, that 
beasts of burden, when fed upon it, will very soon take a dis- 
like to barley. There is no fodder known, in fact, that is 
productive of a greater abundance of milk, and of better qua- ! 
lity; in the medical treatment of cattle in particular, this | 
shrub is found a most excellent specific for every kind of ma- ] 
lady. Even more than this, the same author recommends it, 
when first dried and then boiled in water, to be given to nurs- 
ing women, mixed with wine, in cases where the milk has 
failed them : and he says that, if this iis done, the infant will | 
be all the stronger and taller for it. In a green state, or, if ' 
dried, steeped in water, he recommends it for fowls. Both 
Democritus and Aristomachus promise us also that bees will 
never fail us so long as they can obtain the cytisus for food. 
There is no crop that we know of, of a similar nature, that 
costs a smaller price. It is sown at the same time as barley, 
or, at all events, in the spring, in seed like the leek, or else i 
planted in the autumn, and before the winter solstice, in the stalk. ! 
When sown in grain, it ought to be steeped in water, and if 
29 The Makron Teichos. See B. iv. c. 11. 
30 From the various statements of ancient authors, Fee has come to the 
conclusion that this name was given to two totally different productions. 
The cytisus which the poets speak of as grateful to bees and goats, and 
sheep, he-takes to be the Medicago arborea of Linnaeus, known to us as 
Medic trefoil, or lucerne ; while the other, a tree witli a black wood, he 
considers identical with the Cytisus laburnum of Linnaeus, the laburnum, 
or false ebony tree. 
31 A kind of vetch or tare. See B. xviii. 
