3081 “Gemma.” A name now given by botanists to the buds in general.
3082 “Oculus.” A bud undeveloped is still so called.
3083 Germen.
3084 This remark is not confirmed by experience.
3085 On the contrary, the fig-tree has been known to live to a very great age.
3087 This method of planting the vine is still extensively used; especially the low kinds.
3089 Sagittæ.
3090 Trigemmes.
3091 “Pampinarius.” This assertion has been found to be erroneous.
3092 This practice has been condemned by modern cultivators.
3093 From Columella, B. iii. c. 19.
3095 “Marra.” Probably a mattock, with several prongs.
3096 Occupies more space when thus loosened.
3097 As compared with the original level of the ground.
3098 Query, if this is the meaning of “extendi”?
3099 This method is no longer used.
3100 This, Fée remarks, is not the case: the tree might bear four kinds of grapes, but not four kinds on the same bunch.
3101 De Arbor. c. 9. This is not the fact.
3102 He was little aware, Fée says, that all ligneous plants have a radiating pith, distinct from the central one.
3104 Oliver de Serres distinguishes only three—the low, middling, and tall vines.
3107 “Jugum.” The cross-piece running along the top of the stay at right angles; a rail or trail.
3108 “Compluviatæ quadruplici.” Four cross-pieces running at right angles to the prop or stay. See B. xvi. c. 68.
3109 When these trenches and furrows are employed by the moderns, they are made to run as much as possible from east to west. Most of the rules here mentioned by Pliny are still adopted in France.
3110 Fée regards this precept as a puerility.
3111 See B. xviii. c. 77.
3112 See B. xviii. c. 77. Decuman roads or paths ran from east to west; cardinal roads were those at right angles to them.
3113 “Pagina.” A set, compartment, or bed.
3114 “Transtris.” “Ridges,” would appear to be the proper reading here; more especially as it agrees with what has been previously said in this Chapter in reference to declivitous ground.
3115 De Re Rust. 40.
3116 He differs somewhat in these measurements from Columella, B. iv. c. 11.
3117 This is condemned by Columella, B. iv. c. 11; but is approved of by Virgil, Cato, and other authors.
3119 Stays of elder would be utterly worthless, as they would soon rot, and break directly, upon the least strain.
3120 This applies solely, Fée observes, to the vine trained on the trail or cross-piece.
3121 This certainly appears to be a non sequitur, as applied to the vine.
3122 In the present Chapter.
3123 Pampinarium.
3124 Fructuarium.
3125 Custos.
3126 The pilferer, “or little thief,” apparently.
3127 This, Fée observes, is not in accordance with the fact.
3128 “Draco.” Male vines appear to have been a kind that threw out no stock-branches, but ran to wood.
3129 Than three buds, as already mentioned in the present Chapter.
3130 “Pollices.” Branches, so called from the resemblance, being cut off above the first eye. See Columella, De Re Rust. B. iv. c. 24.
3131 Small forks of hazel are still used for the purpose, in Berri and the Orleanais.
3132 This plan is highly recommended by the modern growers.
3133 This, as Fée remarks, is based upon sound reason.
3135 B. xviii. c. 66.
3136 13th of April.
3137 10th of May.
3138 A mere puerility—the dust, in fact, being injurious to the grape, by obstructing the natural action of heat and humidity.
3139 15th of May. This clearing of the leaves, though still practised, Fée says, is by no means beneficial; the only result is, that the grapes become of a higher colour, but in no degree riper than they otherwise would have been.
3140 The proper period for pruning varies in reality according to the climate.
3141 See B. xviii. c. 59.
3142 See Columella, De Re Rust. B. iv. c. 29.
3143 The real reason, as Fée remarks, is the comparative facility of cutting aslant rather than horizontally; indeed, if the latter were attempted, injury to the wood would be the certain result.
3144 The pruning should come first, in every case, Fée says.
3145 De Re Rust. c. 33. The advice given by him, though good, is not applicable to all vineyards.
3146 A sort of clover, probably. See B. xviii. c. 42, and a few lines below.
3147 From the Greek ὠκέως, “quickly”—Varro says.
3149 It is still practised in Dauphiné and the department of the Basses Alpes. It is very prevalent, also, in the South of Italy.
3150 All these trees are still employed for the purpose in Italy.
3152 Palmæ.
3153 From Columella, B. v. c. 7.
3154 This method is no longer employed.
3155 Rasilis.
3156 Columella, B. v. c. 6.
3157 Columella, B. v. c. 6.
3158 Capreolis.
3159 As being too dense and shady.
3160 From the Greek, meaning the “vine-band.” It was, probably, a kind of rush.
3161 Fée thinks that he may mean the Festuca fluitans more particularly, by the name ulva.
3162 It is no longer used, and Fée doubts its utility.
3163 Hardouin suggests “Tarracina.”
3165 To drain the upper part of the tree.
3167 See B. xviii. c. 56. These, of course, are mere superstitions.
3168 Animalium.
3171 This is the opinion of Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16.
3173 “Vermiculatio.” Fée understands this to apply to the attacks of insects in general, the Dermestes typographus more particularly.
3174 Or, in other words, the evil influences of the heavenly bodies: this, of course, is not believed in at the present day.
3175 Necrosis, in particular portions of the plant.
3176 See B. xvi. c. 19. He alludes to an exuberant secretion of resin, in which case the tree becomes charged with it like a torch.
3177 He alludes to the epidemic and contagious maladies by which trees are attacked. The causes of these attacks are often unknown, but they may probably proceed, in many instances, from springs of hot water, or gaseous emanations secreted in the earth.
3178 The woodpecker more particularly. See B. x. c. 20.
3179 It is not known, with certainty, what these worms or caterpillars were. The larva of the capricorn beetle, or of the stag-beetle, has been suggested. Geoffroi thinks that it may have been the larva of the palm-weevil. This taste for caterpillars, probably, no longer prevails in any part of Europe.
3180 This passage, which is quite conformable to truth, is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16, and B. iii. c. 12.
3182 The effects produced upon young shoots by frost, are still so called.
3183 Probably from the black colour which it turns.
3184 In this case it would be very similar to what we call sun-stroke.
3185 “Clavum,” a nail. He appears to allude to a gall that appears on the bark of the olive, the eruption forming the shape of a nail, and, in some instances, a “patella,” or platter. The Coccus adonideum is an insect that is very destructive to the olive.
3186 De Re Rust. 6.
3188 “Impetigo.” “Tetter,” or “ringworm,” literally.
3189 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16.
3190 Σφακελισμὸς and κράδος.
3191 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16. Fée is at a loss to know what is meant by these viscous dews, and is unable to identify the disease here mentioned as “scabies.” It is not improbable that it was caused by an insect.
3193 See B. xviii. c. 69.
3195 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16. If the terminal bud of the palm is taken off, it will mostly die.
3196 “Decidunt.” The French use a similar word—couler. In this case the pollen, being washed off by the showers, has not the opportunity of fecundating the ovary of the flower.
3197 The insect Ichneumon or Pupivora, probably, which breeds in the larvæ or else in the body of the caterpillar. The passage is from Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 16.
3198 Caused probably by a maggot or moth passing from one grape or olive to another, and spinning its web in vast quantities. See Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 17.
3199 See B. xviii. c. 74.
3200 On the contrary, this sweet juice is secreted by the insect itself, an aphis or vine-fretter.
3201 The north-west wind. See Horace, Sat. B. i. s. v. l. 71.
3202 See B. ii. c. 46.
3203 He probably means if applied to the bark of young trees.
3204 The cork-tree forms no exception to the rule—if a complete ring of the bark that lies under the epidermis is removed, the death of the tree is the inevitable result. See B. xvi. c. 13.
3206 This in reality is not the bark, but merely the epidermis, which is capable of reproduction in many trees.
3208 This method, however, is often found efficacious in preserving the life of the oak, as well as many other trees, by excluding the action of the air and water.
3209 It prevents them from increasing in height, but does not cause their death.
3210 De Re Rust. B. i. c. 2.
3212 This statement is fabulous. Goats are apt to injure trees by biting the buds and young shoots. Fabulous as it is, however, Fée remarks that it still obtains credit among the peasantry in France.
3213 This fabulous story is taken from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. v. c. 25.
3214 Also from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. cc. 19-20, and De Causis, B. v. c. 22. It is just possible that on some of the branches being torn off by an animal, the tree may have grown with increased vigour.
3217 It must be remembered that ivy is not a parasite, and that it has no suckers to absorb the nutriment of another tree.
3219 C. Bauhin gives this name to several species of Atriplex. Lacuna was of opinion that the Halimon of Dioscorides was the same as the Viburnum.
3220 A superstitious belief only, as Fée remarks.
3221 See B. xix. c. 26.
3222 Virgil shared this belief: see Georg. ii. l. 299.
3223 This may be true in some measure as to nitre, alum, and warm sea-water; but not so as to the shells of beans and pigeon-pease, which would make an excellent manure for it.
3224 This, as Fée remarks, is not by any means impossible, nor, indeed, are any other of the cases mentioned in this paragraph, owing to some accidental circumstance.
3225 See B. xxix. c. 29.
3226 These stories can, of course, be only regarded as fabulous.