already mentioned by us on a more appropriate occasion ;7 not satisfied that his fellow-men should perish upon land, but anxious that they should meet their end with no sepulchral rites to await them, there are no execrations to be found that can equal his demerits!

It is only in the preceding Book that I was warning the agriculturist, as he values the grain that is to form our daily sustenance, to be on his guard against the storm and the tempest; and yet, here we have man sowing with his own hand, man racking his invention how best to gather, an object the only aspirations of which upon the deep are the winds of heaven! And then, too, as if to let us understand all the better how highly favoured is this instrument of our punishment, there is no vegetable production that grows with greater facility;10 and, to prove to us that it is in despite of Nature herself that it exists, it has the property of scorching 11 the ground where it is grown, and of deteriorating the quality of the very soil itself.

chap. 2. (1.)—how flax is sown: twenty-seven principal

varieties of it.

Flax is mostly sown in sandy 12 soils, and after a single ploughing only. There is no plant that grows more rapidly ›

7 In B. vii. c. 57. He alludes to Dædalus.

8 He probably has in view here the imprecation uttered by Horace :— Illi robur, et æs triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci

Commisit pelago ratem."—Odes, i. 3.

13

At the present day hemp forms a material part in the manufacture of sails. In addition to flax, the ancients employed broom, rushes, leather, and various skins of animals for the purpose.

9 In c. 76.

10 On the contrary, as Fée observes, the cultivation of flax is attended with the greatest difficulties.

11 See B. xvii. c. 7. Virgil says, Georg. i. 77, "Urit enim lini campum seges"-but in the sense, as Fée remarks, of exhausting, not scorching the soil.

12 A light soil, and well manured, is usually employed for the purpose. Columella, B. ii. c. 10, recommends a rich, moist soil. It is sown in March or April, and is gathered, according to the season, from June to September. 13 Though rapid in its growth, there are many vegetable productions that grow more rapidly.

14

than this; sown in spring, it is pulled up in summer, and is, for this reason as well, productive of considerable injury to the soil.15 There may be some, however, who would forgive Egypt for growing it, as it is by its aid that she imports the merchandize of Arabia and India; but why should the Gallic provinces base any of their reputation upon this product 16 Is it not enough, forsooth, for them to be separated by mountains from the sea, and to have, upon the side on which they are bounded by the Ocean, that void and empty space, as it is called? 17 The Cadurci, 18 the Caleti, the Ruteni, 19 the Bituriges,20 and the Morini," those remotest of all mankind, as it is supposed, the whole of the Gallic provinces, in fact, are in the habit of weaving sail-cloth; and at the present day our enemies even, who dwell beyond the Rhenus, have learned to do the same; indeed, there is no tissue that is more beautiful in the eyes of their females than linen. I am here reminded of the fact, that we find it stated by M. Varro, that it is a custom peculiar to the family of the Serrani 22 for the women never to wear garments of linen. In Germany it is in caves 23 deep underground that the linen-weavers ply their work; and the same is the case, too, in the Alian territory, in Italy, between the rivers Padus and Ticinus, the linen of which holds the third rank among the kinds manufactured in Europe, that of Sætabis 24 claiming the first, and those of Retovium 25 and of Faven

14 This was the time for sowing it with the Romans, though in some countries, at the present day, it is sown so late as the autumn.

15 In B. xviii. c. 72, he has spoken of this method of gathering vegetable productions as injurious to the soil, by withdrawing its natural juices.

16 Censentur hoc reditu ?" There is little doubt than the Gauls, like their German neighbours, cultivated flax for the purposes of female dress, and not mainly for the manufacture of sails.

17 "Quod vocant inane." He implies that the boundless space of ocean on the Western coasts of Gaul was useless for any purposes of navigation.

18 See B. iv. c. 33.

20 See B. xxxiv. c. 48.

22 A family of the Atilia gens.

19 See B. iv. c. 33.

21 See B. xv. c. 31.

23 It was, and is still to some extent, a prevalent opinion, that the humidity of caves under-ground is favourable to the manufacture of tissues of hemp and flax.

24 In Spain. See B. i. c. 1, and B. iii. c. 4.

25 Cluvier takes this place to be the same with Litubium in Liguria, mentioned by Livy, B. xxxii.

tia, in the vicinity of Alia, on the Emilian Way, the second, place in general estimation. The linens of Faventia are preferred for whiteness to those of Alia, which are always unbleached: those of Retovium are remarkable for their extreme fineness, combined with substance, and are quite equal in whiteness to the linens of Faventia; but they have none of that fine downy nap 26 upon them, which is so highly esteemed by some persons, though equally disliked by others. A thread is made, too, from their flax, of considerable strength, smoother and more even, almost, that the spider's web; when tested with the teeth, it emits a sharp, clear twang; hence it is, that it sells at double the price of the other kinds.

But it is the province of Nearer Spain that produces a linen of the greatest lustre, an advantage which it owes to the waters of a stream which washes the city of Tarraco" there. The fineness, too, of this linen is quite marvellous, and here it is that the first manufactories of cambric 28 were established. From the same province, too, of Spain, the flax of Zoëla 29 has of late years been introduced into Italy, and has been found extremely serviceable for the manufacture of hunting-nets. Zoëla is a city of Callæcia, in the vicinity of the Ocean. The flax, too, of Cumæ, in Campania, has its own peculiar merits in the manufacture of nets for fishing and fowling; it is employed, also, for making hunting-nets. For it is from flax, in fact, that we prepare various textures, destined to be no less insidious to the brute creation than they are to ourselves. It is with toils made from the flax of Cumæ that wild boars are taken, the meshes being proof against their bristles, 30 equally with the edge of the knife: before now, too, we have seen some of these toils of a fineness so remarkable31 as to allow of being 'Lanugo." This is not generally looked upon as a merit in linen, at the present day.

26

27 Now Tarragona. See B. iii. c. 4.

28 Carbasus." This was probably the Spanish name originally for fine flax, and hence came to signify the cambrics, or fine linen tissues made of it. It seems, however, to have afterwards been extended to all kinds of linen tissues, as we find the name given indifferently to linen garments, sail-cloth, and awnings for the theatres.

29 See B. iii. c. 4.

30 "Sætas ceu per ferri aciem vincunt." This passage is probably in a mutilated state.

31 There must either be some corruption in the text, or else Pliny must have been mistaken. Nets such as these could have been of no possible use in taking a wild boar.

passed through a man's ring, running ropes and all, a single individual being able to carry an amount of nets sufficient to environ a whole forest—a thing which we know to have been done not long ago by Julius Lupus, who died prefect of Egypt. This, however, is nothing very surprising, but it really is quite wonderful that each of the cords was composed of no less than one hundred and fifty threads. Those, no doubt, will be astonished at this, who are not aware that there is preserved in the Temple of Minerva, at Lindus, in the Isle of Rhodes, the cuirass of a former king of Egypt, Amasis by name, each thread employed in the texture of which is composed of three hundred and sixty-five other threads. Mucianus, who was three times consul, informs us that he saw this curiosity very recently, though there was but little then remaining of it, in consequence of the injury it had experienced at the hands of various persons who had tried to verify the fact. Italy, too, holds the flax of the Peligni in high esteem, though it is only employed by fullers; there is no kind known that is whiter than this, or which bears a closer resemblance to wool. That grown by the Cadurci3 is held in high estimation for making mattresses;33 which, as well as flock, are an invention for which we are indebted to the Gauls: the ancient usage of Italy is still kept in remembrance in the word "stramentum," name given by us to beds stuffed with straw.

34

the

The flax of Egypt, though the least strong-36 of all as a tissue, is that from which the greatest profits are derived. There are four varieties of it, the Tanitic, the Pelusiac, the Butic, and the Tentyritic-so called from the various districts in which they are respectively grown. The upper part of Egypt, in the vicinity of Arabia, produces a shrub, known by some as gossypium," " but by most persons as xylon;" hence the

66

32 See B. iv. c. 33. Now Querci, the chief town of which is Cahors. 33 "Culcitæ." 34 Tomenta."

35 Exactly corresponding to our "paillasse," a "bed of straw."

36 This is doubtful, though at the same time it is a well-known fact that the Egyptian flax grows to the greatest size. Hasselquist speaks of it attaining a height of fifteen feet.

37 Our cotton, the Gossypium arboreum of Linnæus. See B. xii. c. 21. The terms xylon, byssus, and gossypium, must be regarded as synonymous, being applied sometimes to the plant, sometimes to the raw cotton, and sometimes to the tissues, made from it. Gossypium was probably the barbarous name of the cotton tree, and byssus perhaps a corruption of its Hebrew name.

name of "xylina," given to the tissues that are manufactured from it. The shrub is small, and bears a fruit, similar in appearance to a nut with a beard, and containing in the inside a silky substance, the down of which is spun into threads. There is no tissue known, that is superior to those made from this thread, either for whiteness, softness, or dressing: the most esteemed vestments worn by the priests of Egypt are made of it. There is a fourth kind of tissue, known by the name of "othoninum," which is made from a kind of marshreed, 38 the panicule only being employed for the purpose. In Asia, again, there is a thread made from broom, 39 which is employed in the construction of fishing-nets, being found to be remarkably durable; for the purpose of preparing it, the shrub is steeped in water for ten days. The Æthiopians, also, and the people of India, prepare a kind of thread from a fruit which resembles our apple, and the Arabians, as already mentioned, from gourds that grow upon trees.

СНАР. 3.- -THE MODE OF PREPARING FLAX.

In our part of the world the ripeness of flax is usually ascertained by two signs, the swelling of the seed, and its assuming a yellowish tint. It is then pulled up by the roots, made up into small sheaves that will just fill the hand, and hung to dry in the sun. It is suspended with the roots upwards the first day, and then for the five following days the heads of the sheaves are placed, reclining one against the other, in such a way that the seed which drops out may fall into the middle. Linseed is employed for various medicinal40* purposes, and it is used by the country-people of Italy beyond the Padus in a certain kind of food, which is remarkable for its sweet

36 Probably the Arundo donax of modern botanists. See B. xvi. c. 66. 39 Fée says, that the people of Pisa, at the present day, soak the stalks of broom, and extract therefrom a thread, of which cords and coarse stuffs are made.

40 In B. xii. c. 21. He seems there to speak of the cotton-tree, though Fée suggests that he may possibly allude to the " Bombax pentandrum" of Linnæus.

40 It is the mucilage of the perisperm that is so useful in medicine. As an article of food, the farina of linseed is held in no esteem whatever. In times of scarcity, attempts have been made to mix it with flour or meal, but the result has been found to be heavy and indigestible, and has caused, it is said, the death even of those who have eaten of it in considerable quantities.