282 
PLIITy's natural HI8T0KT. [Book XY. 
known as tlie posia,"^^ the berry of which, owiog to a vicious 
method of cultivation, and not any fault on the part of Na- 
ture, has the most flesh upon it. I^'ext to this is the orchites, 
which contains the greatest quantity of oil, and then, after 
that, the radius. As these are of a peculiarly delicate nature, 
the heat very rapidly takes effect upon them, and the amurca 
they contain causes them to fall. On the other hand, the 
gathering of the tough, hard- skinned olive is put off so late as 
the month of March, it being well able to resist the effects of 
moisture, and, consequently, very small. Those varieties known 
as the Licinian, the Cominian, the Contian, and the Sergian, 
by the Sabines called the royal" olive, do not turn black 
before the west winds prevail, or, in other words, before the 
sixth day before^^ the ides of February. At this period it is 
generally thought that they begin to ripen, and as a most ex- 
cellent oil is extracted from them, experience would seem to 
give its support to a theory which, in reality, is altogether 
wrong. The growers say that in the same degree that cold 
diminishes the oil, the ripeness of the berry augments it ; 
whereas, in reality, the goodness of the oil is owing, not to 
the period at which the olives are gathered, but to the natural 
properties of this peculiar variety, in which the oil is remark- 
ably slow in turning to amurca. 
A similar error, too, is committed by those who keep the 
olives, when gathered, upon a layer of boards, and do not 
press the fruit till it has thrown out a sweat ; it being the 
fact that every hour lost tends to diminish the oil and increase 
the amurca : the consequence is, that, according to the ordi- 
nary computation, a modius of olives ^delds no more than six 
pounds of oil. ]^o one, however, ever takes account of the 
quantity of amurca to ascertain, in reference to the same 
land of berry, to what extent it increases daily in amount. 
Then, again, it is a very general error^^ among practical per- 
sons to suppose that the oil increases proportionably to the 
increased size of the berry ; and more particularly so when it 
is so clearly proved that such is not the case, with reference to 
^ More commonly spelt " pausia." 
21 " Regia." It is impossible to identify these varieties. 
32 8th of February. 
33 This assertion of Pliny is not generally true. The large olives of 
Spain yield oil very plentifully. 
