The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

Chapter 15: CHAP. 13.—BARLEY: RICE.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

History - Ancient Science - Earth/Agricultural/Farming

About This Book

The text compiles practical and encyclopedic guidance on crop cultivation and plant uses, beginning with cereals and farm management — types of grain, sowing and harvesting schedules, ploughing, seed selection, storage, and maladies — plus weather and stellar prognostics for agricultural timing. It proceeds to flax and garden plants, detailing varieties, planting and processing methods, garden layout, and pest and disease remedies. The final section assembles medicinal preparations and numerous remedies derived from vegetables and herbs, listing applications and recipes for treating ailments using garden-grown plants.

CHAP. 13.—BARLEY: RICE.

Of all the cereals the first that is sown is barley. We shall state the appropriate time for sowing each kind when we come to treat of the nature of each individually. In India, there is both a cultivated and a wild 138 barley, from which they make excellent bread, as well as alica.139 But the most favourite food of all there is rice,140 from which they prepare a ptisan 141 similar to that made from barley in other parts of the world. The leaves of rice are fleshy,142 very like those of the leek, but broader; the stem is a cubit in height, the blossom purple, and the root globular, like a pearl in shape.143