440 PLTNY'S NATUllAL HISTOllX. [Book XlilT. 
buildings even as yet possessed any pillars made of that mate- 
rial. Of such recent date is the luxury and opulence which 
we now enjoy, and so much greater was the value which in 
those days trees were supposed to confer upon a property ! 
A pretty good proof of which, was the fact that Domitius even, 
with all his enmity, would not keep to the offer he had made, 
if the trees were not to be included in the bargain. 
The trees have furnished surnames also to the ancients, such, 
for instance, as that of Pronditius to the warrior who swam 
across the Yolturnus with a wreath of leaves on his head, and 
distinguished himself by his famous exploits in the war against 
Hannibal ; and that of Stolo^^ to the Licinian family, such being 
the name given by us to the useless suckers that shoot from 
trees ; the best method of clearing away these shoots was 
discovered by the first Stolo, and hence his name. The ancient 
laws also took the trees under their protection ; and by the 
Twelve Tables it was enacted, that he who should wrongfully 
cut down trees belonging to another person, should pay twenty- 
five asses for each. Is it possible then to imagine that they, 
who estimated the fruit-trees at so low a rate as this, could ever 
have supposed that so exorbitant a value would be put upon the 
lotus as that which I have just mentioned ? And no less mar- 
vellous, too, are the changes that have taken place in the value 
of fruit ; for at the present day Ave fi.nd the fruit alone of many 
of the trees in the suburbs valued at no less a sum than two 
thousand sesterces ; the profits derived from a single tree thus 
being more than those of a whole estate in former times. It 
was from motives of gain that the grafting of trees and the 
propagation thereby of a spurious offspring was first devised, 
so that the growth of the fruits even might be a thing inter- 
dicted to the poor. We shall, therefore, now proceed to 
state in what way it is that such vast revenues are derived 
from these trees, and with that object shall set forth the true 
and most approved methods of cultivation ; not taking any 
notice of the more common methods, or those which we find 
generally adopted, but considering only those points of doubt 
and uncertainty, in relation to which practical men are most 
apt to find themselves at a loss : while, at the same time, to 
1^ As Fee remarks, this usage has been reversed in modern times, and 
plants often receive tlieir botanical names from men. 
See B. xviii. c, 4. , 
