Latin Texts & Translations

The proper times ^[Note] for watering are the morning and the evening, to prevent the water from being heated ^[Note] by the sun with the sole exception, however, of ocimum, which requires to be watered at midday; indeed, this plant, it is generally thought, will grow with additional rapidity, if it is watered with boiling water when sown. All plants, when trans-

planted, grow all the better and larger for it, leeks and turnips more particularly. Transplanting, too, is attended with certain remedial effects, and acts as a preservative to certain plants, such as scallions, for instance, leeks, radishes, parsley, lettuces, rape, and cucumbers. All the wild plants ^[Note] are generally smaller in the leaf and stalk than the cultivated ones, and have more acrid juices, cunila, wild marjoram, and rue, for example. Indeed, it is only the lapathum ^[Note] that is better in a wild state than cultivated: in its cultivated state it is the same plant that is known to us as the "rumix," being the most vigorous ^[Note] by far of all the plants that are grown; so much so, indeed, that it is said that when it has once taken root, it will last for ever, and can never be extirpated from the soil, more particu- larly if water happens to be near at hand. Its juices, which are employed only in ptisans, ^[Note] as an article of food, have the effect of imparting to them a softer and more exquisite flavour. The wild variety ^[Note] is employed for many medicinal purposes.

So true it is, that the careful research of man has omitted nothing, that I have even met with a poem, ^[Note] in which I find it stated, that if pellets of goats' dung, the size of a bean, are hollowed out, and the seed of leeks, rocket, lettuces, parsley, endive, and cresses is inserted in them, and then sown, the plants will thrive in a marvellous degree. Plants ^[Note] in a wild state, it is generally thought, are more dry and acrid than when cultivated.