306 
plint's natural histoex. 
[Book XV. 
the way already pointed out.^^ There are some who assign to 
each apple or pear its separate vessel of clay, and after care- 
fully pitching the cover, enclose it again in a larger vessel : 
occasionally, too, the fruit is placed on a layer of flocks of 
wool, or else in baskets,^^ with a lining of chaff and clay. 
Other persons follow a similar plan, but use earthen plates for 
the purpose ; while others, again, employ the same method, 
but dig a hole in the earth, and after placing a layer of sand, 
lay the fruit on top of it, and then cover the whole with dry 
earth. Persons, too, are sometimes known to give quinces a 
coating of Pontic wax, and then plunge them in honey. 
Columella informs us, that fruit is kept by being carefully 
put in earthen vessels, which then receive a coating of pitch, and 
are placed in wells or cisterns to sink to the bottom. The people 
of maritime Liguria, in the vicinity of the Alps, first dry their , 
grapes in the sun,*^^ and wrap them up in bundles of rushes, 
w^hich are then covered with plaster. The Greeks follow a 
similar plan, but substitute for rushes the leaves of the plane- 
tree, or of the vine itself, or else of the fig, which they dry 
for a single day in the shade, and then place in a cask in 
alternate layers with husks of grapes. It is by this method 
that they preserve the grapes of Cos and Berytus, which are 
inferior to none in sweetness. Some persons, when thus pre- 
paring them, plunge the grapes into lie-ashes the moment they 
take them from the vine, and then dry them in the sun ; they 
then steep them in warm water, after which they put them to 
dry again in the sun : and last of all, as already mentioned, 
wrap them up in bundles formed of layers of leaves and grape 
husks. There are some who prefer keeping their grapes in 
sawdust,^^ or else in shavings of the fii*-tree, poplar, and ash : 
while others think it the best plan to hang them up in the 
granary, at a careful distance from the apples, directly after the 
gathering, being under the impression that the very best cover- 
ing for them as they hang is the dust^^ that naturally arises 
36 In a pit two feet deep, &c. See above. Capsse, 
See B. xxi. c. 49. De Ee Eust. B. xii. c. 43. 
40 These must make raisins of the sun. 
41 These must have been perfectly dry, or else they would tend to rot 1 
the grapes or raisins. | 
42 Columella, for instance, B. xii. c. 43. 
43 The dust is in reality very liable to spoil the fruit, from the tenacity' j 
