264 
pliny's natural history. 
[Book XIY. 
used in preparing wines ; indeed, several of the Greeks have 
written separate treatises on this subject, and have made a 
complete art of it, such, for instance, as Euphronius, Aristo- 
machus, Commiades, and Hicesius. The people of Africa are 
in the habit of neutralizing such acidity as may be found 
with gypsum, and in some parts with lime. The people of 
Greece, on the other hand, impart briskness to their wines 
when too flat, with potters' earth, pounded marble, salt, or 
sea- water ; while in Italy, again, brown pitch is used for that 
purpose in some parts, and it is the universal practice both 
there as well as in the adjoining provinces to season their new 
wines with resin : sometimes, too, they season them with old 
wine-lees or vinegar. They make various medicaments, also, 
for this purpose with the must itself. They boil it down till 
it becomes quite sweet, and has lost a considerable portion of 
its strength ; though thus prepared, they say it will never last 
beyond a single year. In some places they boil down the 
must till it becomes sapa,^^ and then mix it with their wines 
for the purpose of modifying their harshness. Eoth for 
these kinds of wines, as, indeed, all others, they always employ 
vessels which have themselves received an inner coat of pitch ; 
the method of preparing them will be set forth in a succeeding 
Book.^* 
CHAP. 25. (20.) — PITCH AND EESIN. 
Of the trees from which pitch and resin distil, there are 
some which grow in the East, and others in Europe : the pro- 
vince of Asia,^^ which lies between the two, has also some of 
both kinds. In the East, the very best commodity of this 
kind, and of the finest quality, is that produced by the tere- 
binth,^^ and, next to it, that from the lentisk,^"^ which is also 
known as the mastich. The next in quality to these is the juice 
of the cypress, being of a more acrid flavour than any other. 
See B. xxiii. c. 24, and B. xxxvi. c. 48. 
A process very hkely, as Fee remarks, to turn the wines speedily to 
vinegar. 
13 Down to one-third. This practice of using boiled grape-juice as a 
seasoning, is still followed in Spain in making some of the liqueurs ; but it 
is not generally recommended. 
1* B. xvi. c. 21. 15 Asia Minor, namely. 
16 B. xiii. c. 12. 17 B. xii. c. 37. 
18 It produces but a very minute quantity of resin, which is no longer - 
an article of commerce. 
