Chapter II: Garden and Orchard (2)
The fancy of Hellenic gardeners amused itself with effecting numerous fantastic changes in the appearance and nature of fruit. Thus citrons, lemons, &c., were made, by the application of a clay mould, to assume the form of the human face, of birds and other animals.[1400] Occasionally, too, they were introduced, when small, into the neck of a bottle provided with breathing holes, the figure of which they assumed as they projected their growth into all its dimensions. We are assured, moreover, that, by a very simple process, they could produce peaches, almonds,[1401] &c., covered, as though by magic, with written characters. The mode of operation was this,—steeping the stone of the fruit in water for several days, they then carefully divided it, and taking out the kernel inscribed upon it with a brazen pen whatever words or letters they thought proper. This done, they again closed the stone over the kernel, bound it round with papyrus, and planted it; and the peaches or almonds which afterwards grew on that tree bore every one of them, _mirabile dictu!_ the legend inscribed upon the kernel. By similar arts[1402] they created stoneless peaches, walnuts without husks, figs white one side, and black the other, and converted bitter almonds into sweet.[1403]
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Footnote 1400:
Geop. x. 9. Clus. Rar. Plant. Hist. i. 4.
Footnote 1401:
Geop. x. 14. 60. Pallad. ii. 15. 13.
Footnote 1402:
Geop. x. 16. 53. 76.
Footnote 1403:
Geop. x. 59. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 8. 1. Caus. Plant. i. 9. 1.
Plin. xvii. 43. Pallad. ii. 15. 1l.
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The rules observed in the planting of fruit-trees were numerous.[1404] Some, they were of opinion, were best propagated by seed, others by suckers wrenched from the root of the parent stock,[1405] others, again, by branches selected from among the new wood on the topmost boughs. A rude practice, too, common enough in our own rural districts, appears to have been in much favour among them,—bending some long pendant bough to the ground, they covered a part of it with heavy clods, allowing, however, the extremity to appear above the earth. When it had taken root it was severed from the tree and transplanted to some proper situation. At other times, the points of boughs were drawn down and fixed in the ground, which even thus took root, and sent the juices backwards, after which the bough was cut off and a new stock produced. Trees generated by this method, as well as those planted during the waning moon,[1406] were supposed to spread and grow branchy, while those set during the waxing moon attained, though weaker, to a much greater height. It ought, perhaps, to be further added, that all seeds and plants were put into the ground while the moon was below the horizon.[1407] Those trees which it was customary to renew by seed were the pistachio, the filbert, the almond, the chestnut, the white peach, the damascene, the pine-tree, and the edible pine, the palm, the cypress, the laurel, the ash, the maple, and the fig. The apple,[1408] the cherry, the rhamnus jujuba, the common nut, the dwarf laurel, the myrtle, and the medlar, were propagated by suckers; while the quicker and surer mode of raising trees from boughs was frequently adopted in the case of the almond, the pear, the mulberry, the citron,[1409] the apple, the olive, the quince,[1410] the black and white poplar, the ivy, the jujube-tree, the myrtle, the chestnut, the vine, the willow, the box, and the cytisus.
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Footnote 1404:
Geop. x. 3. Cf. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 3.
Footnote 1405:
Plin. xvii. 13. When a tree was barren, or had lost its strength in
blooming, they split it at the root, and put a stone into the fissure
to keep it open, after which it was said to bear well. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. ii. 7. 6. It was customary, moreover, to wound the trunks of
almond, pear, and other trees, as the service-tree in Arcadia, in
order to render them fertile. 1d. ii. 7. 7. The berries of the cornel
and service-trees were sweeter and ripened earlier wild than when
cultivated, iii. 2. 1.
Footnote 1406:
The ancients believed that the moon ripens fruit, promotes digestion,
and causes putrefaction in wood, and animal substances. Athen. vii. 3.
Cf. Plut. Sympos. iii. 10.
Footnote 1407:
Geop. x. 2. 13.
Footnote 1408:
Cf. Vigenère, Images des Philostrates, p. 48.
Footnote 1409:
“Les orangers et les citronniers perfument l’air par la quantité
prodigieuse des fleurs dont ils sont chargés, et qui s’épanouissent
aux premières chaleurs.”—Della Rocca, Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i.
p. 5.
Footnote 1410:
Originally of Crete. Pashley, i. 27. κοδύμαλον in the ancient dialect
of the country. Athen. iii. 2.
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But the thrifty people of Hellas seldom devoted the orchard-ground entirely to fruit-trees. The custom seems to have been to lay out the whole in beds and borders for the cultivation of vegetables, and to plant trees, at intervals, along the edges and at the corners. These beds, moreover, were often, as with us, edged with parsley and rue; whence the proverb,—“You have not proceeded beyond the rue,” for “You know nothing of the matter.”[1411]
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Footnote 1411:
Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 480. Geop. xii. 1. 2.
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The rustics of antiquity, who put generally great faith in spells and talismans, possessed an extraordinary charm for ensuring unfailing fertility to their gardens; they buried an ass’s head deep in the middle of them, and sprinkled the ground with the juice of fenugreek and lotus.[1412] Somewhat greater efficacy, however, may be attributed to their laborious methods of manuring and irrigation.[1413]
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Footnote 1412:
Geop. xii. 6. Pallad. i. 35. 16.
Footnote 1413:
Lucian. Luc. siv. Asin. § 43.
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The aspect of such a garden differed very little, except perhaps in luxuriance, from a similar plot of ground in Kent or Middlesex. Here you perceived beds of turnips, or cabbages, or onions; there, lettuces, or endive, or succory,[1414] in the process of blanching, or the delicate heads of asparagus, or broad-beans, or lentils, or peas, or kidney-beans, or artichokes. In the most sunny spots were ranges of boxes or baskets for forcing cucumbers.[1415] Near the brooks, where such existed, were patches of watermelons,[1416] the finest in the world; and here and there, clasping round the trunks of trees,[1417] and, suspending its huge leaves and spheres from among the branches, you might behold the gourd,[1418] as I have often seen it in the palm-groves of Nubia. It may be added, that the pumpkin, or common gourd, was eaten by the Greeks,[1419] as it is still in France and Asia Minor.[1420]
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Footnote 1414:
Geop. ii. 37. 40.
Footnote 1415:
These were covered with plates of the lapis specularis, and furnished
with wheels, that they might the more easily be moved in and out from
under cover. Colum. De Re Rust. xi. 3. p. 461: see also Castell,
Villas of the Ancients, p. 4.
Footnote 1416:
These are found growing at present even in the cemeteries. “Des melons
d’eau qui végètent çà et là sur ces tombes abandonnées, resemblent,
par leur forme et leur pâleur, à des crânes humains qu’on ne s’est pas
donné la peine d’ensèvelir.” Chateaub. Itin. i. 27. These fruit are
considered so innocent in the Levant as to be given to the sick in
fevers. Chandler, i. p. 77.
Footnote 1417:
Colum. De Cult. Hortor. 234.
Footnote 1418:
Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 494.
Footnote 1419:
Athen. iii. 1.
Footnote 1420:
Chandler, i. 317.
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Lettuces[1421] were blanched by being tied a-top, or being buried up to a certain point in sand.[1422] They were, moreover, supposed to be rendered more rich and delicate by being watered with a mixture of wine and honey, as was the practice of the gourmand Aristoxenos, who having done so over-night, used next morning to cut them, and say they were so many green cakes sent him by mother Earth.[1423]
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Footnote 1421:
See Strattis’s Invocation to the Caterpillar. Athen. ii. 79. Theoph.
Hist. Plant. vii. 2. 4. 5. 4.
Footnote 1422:
Geop. xii. 13. 3. Pallad. ii. 14. 2.
Footnote 1423:
Athen. i. 12.
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The Greek gardeners appear to have delighted exceedingly in the production of monstrous vegetables. Thus, in the case of the cucumber, their principal object appears to have been to produce it without seed, or of some extraordinary shape.[1424] In the first case they diligently watched the appearance of the plant above ground, and then covering it over with fresh earth, and repeating the same operation three times, the cucumbers it bore were found to be seedless. The same effect was produced by steeping the seeds in sesamum-oil for three days before they were sown. They were made to grow to a great length by having vessels of water[1425] placed daily within a few inches of their points, which, exciting by attraction a sort of nisus in the fruit, drew them forward as far as the gardener thought necessary.[1426] They were made, likewise, to assume all sorts of forms by the use of light, fictile moulds,[1427] as in the case of the citron. Another method was, to take a large reed,[1428] split it, and clear out the pith; then introducing the young cucumber into the hollow, the sections of the reed were bound together, and the fruit projected itself through the tube until it acquired an enormous length. It is observed by Theophrastus, that if you steep the seeds of cucumbers in milk, or an infusion of honey, it will improve their flavour.[1429] They were, moreover, believed to expand in size at the full of the moon, like the sea-hedgehog.[1430] A fragrant smell was supposed to be communicated to melons[1431] by constantly keeping the seed in dry rose-leaves. To preserve the seed for any length of time, it was sprinkled with the juice of house-leek.
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Footnote 1424:
Geop. xii. 19. 1, sqq. Pallad. iv. 9. 8.
Footnote 1425:
Plin. xix. 23. Pallad. iv. 9. 8.
At qui sub trichila manantem repit ad undam,
Labentemque sequens nimio tenuatur amore,
Candidus, effœtæ tremebundior ubere porcæ.
Colum. x. De Cult. Hortor. 394.
Footnote 1426:
Lord Bacon, having noticed this fact, adds the following sage remark:
“If you set a stake or prop at a certain distance from it (the vine),
it will grow that way, which is far stranger than the other: for that
water may work by a sympathy of attraction; but this of the stake
seemeth to be a reasonable discourse.” Sylva Sylvarum, 462.
Footnote 1427:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 3. 5. Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 24.
Footnote 1428:
Plin. xix. 23.
Footnote 1429:
Cf. Athen. iii. 5.
Footnote 1430:
Athen. iii. 2.
Footnote 1431:
The best melons at present known in Greece are those of Cephalonia,
which lose their flavour if transplanted. Hobhouse, Trav. &c., i. 227.
Cf. Chandler, i. p. 14.
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The Megaréans, in whose country melons, gourds,[1432] and cucumbers were plentiful, were accustomed to heap dust about their roots during the prevalence of the Etesian winds, and found this answer of irrigation.[1433] It appears from the following proverb,—“The end of cucumbers and the beginning of pompions,”—that the former went out of season as the latter came in.[1434]
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Footnote 1432:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 494.
Footnote 1433:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 7. 5.
Footnote 1434:
Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 966.
-----
To procure a plentiful crop of asparagus, they used to bury the shavings of a wild ram’s horn, and well water them.[1435] By banking up the stalks, moreover, immediately after cutting the heads, they caused new shoots to spring forth, and thus enjoyed a fresh supply throughout the year. This plant was probably obtained from Libya,[1436] where it was said to attain, in its wild state, the height of twelve, and sometimes even of thirty cubits;[1437] and on the slopes of Lebanon, in Syria, it has in our own clay been seen from twelve to fifteen feet high.
Footnote 1435:
Geop. xii. 18. 2. Plin. xix. 42. Dioscor. ii. 152. The physician,
however, modestly professes his unbelief: ἔνιοι δὲ ἱστόρησαν, ὅτι ἐάν
τις κριοῦ κέρατα συγκόψας κατορύξῃ, φύεται ἀσπάραγος · ἐμοὶ δὲ
ἀπίθανον.
Footnote 1436:
The asparagus, however, has been found, in modern times, growing wild
among the ruins of Epidauros. Chandler, ii. 249.
Footnote 1437:
Athen. ii. 62.
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That kind of cabbage which we call savoys was supposed to flourish best in saline spots, on which account the gardeners used to sift pounded nitre[1438] over the beds where it was sown, as was the practice also in Egypt. In and about Alexandria,[1439] however, there was said to be some peculiar quality in the earth which communicated a bitter taste to the cabbage. To prevent this they imported cabbage-seed from the island of Rhodes, which produced good plants the first year, but experienced in the second the acrid influence of the soil.[1440] Kumè was celebrated for its fine cabbages, which, when full-grown, were of a yellowish green colour, like the new leather sole of a sandal. Broccoli and sea-kale and cauliflowers would appear to have been commonly cultivated in the gardens of the ancients. There was, likewise, among them a sort of cabbage supposed to have some connexion with the gift of prophecy;[1441] and by this, probably, it was, that certain comic personages used to swear, as Socrates by the dog, and Zeno by the caper-bush.
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Footnote 1438:
Geop. ii. 41.
Footnote 1439:
Athen. ix. 9. Suid. v. κράμβη. t. i. p. 1518. b. Cf. Foës. Œconom.
Hippoc. v. κραμβίων. p. 214. Dioscorid. ii. 146.
Footnote 1440:
Cf. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. p. 488. b.
Footnote 1441:
Cf. Casaub. Animadv. in Athen. ix. 9. t. x. p. 24.
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Radishes[1442] were rendered sweet by steeping the seeds in wine and honey, or the fresh juice of grapes: Nicander speaks of preserved turnips.[1443] Parsley-seed was put into the earth in an old rag, or a wisp of straw,[1444] surrounded with manure, and well-watered, which made the plant grow large. Rue they sowed in warm and sunny spots, without manure.[1445] It was defended from the cold of winter by being surrounded with heaps of ashes,[1446] and was sometimes planted in pots, probably to be kept in apartments for the sake of its bright yellow flowers,[1447] and because, when smelt, it was said to cure the head-ache. The juice of wild rue, mixed with woman’s milk, sharpened the sight, in the opinion of the ancients.[1448] The juice of sweet mint, which was a garden herb, squeezed into milk,[1449] was supposed to prevent coagulation, even should rennet be afterwards thrown into it.
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Footnote 1442:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 1. 3.
Footnote 1443:
Athen. iv. 11.
Footnote 1444:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 2. 6. 4. Aristoph. Concion. 355, et
schol.
Footnote 1445:
Geop. xii. 1.
Footnote 1446:
Geop. xii. 25. 1.
Footnote 1447:
Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 368.
Footnote 1448:
Dioscor. iii. 53. Geop. xii. 25. 4.
Footnote 1449:
Geop. xii. 24.
-----
Both the root and bean of the nymphæa nelumbo or red lotus,[1450] were eaten in Egypt,[1451] where its crimson flowers were woven into crowns which diffused an agreeable odour, and were considered exceedingly refreshing in the heat of summer.[1452] This plant was by the Greeks of Naucratis denominated the melilotus, to distinguish it from the lotus with white flowers. Theophrastus[1453] observes, that it grows in the marshes to the height of four cubits, and has a striped root and stem. This lotus was also anciently found in Syria and Cilicia, but did not there ripen. In the environs of Toronè in Chalcidice,[1454] however, it was found in perfection in a small marsh.
-----
Footnote 1450:
The rose-coloured lotus was said by the poet Pancrates to have been
produced from the blood of the lion slain by the Emperor Adrian.
Athen. xv. 21.
Footnote 1451:
Athen. iii. 1.
Footnote 1452:
Nicander in Georgicis ap. Athen. iii. 1.
Σπείρειας κύαμον Αἰγύπτιον, ὄφρα θερείης
Ἅνθεα μὲν στεφάνους ἀνύῃς· τὰ δὲ πεπτηῶτα
Ἀκμαίου καρποῖο κιβώρια δαινυμένοισιν
Ἐς χέρας ἠΐθεοισι, πάλαι ποθέουσιν, ὀρέξης
Ῥίζας δ᾽ ἐν θοίνῃσιν ἀφεψήσας προτίθημι.
See the note of Schweighæuser, t. vii. 10.
Footnote 1453:
Histor. Plant. iv. 10.
Footnote 1454:
It was also found in Thesprotia. Athen. iii. 3.
-----
The lupin,[1455] and the caper-bush, probably cultivated for the beauty of its delicate white flowers,[1456] deteriorated in gardens,[1457] as did likewise the mallows,[1458] which, together with the beet, were said to acquire in gardens the height of a small tree.[1459] The stem of the mallows was sometimes used as a walking stick. Its large pale red flower which
Follows with its bending head the sun,[1460]
constituted one of the ornaments of the garden.
-----
Footnote 1455:
Geop. ii. 39. Apuleius relates that the lupin-flower turned round with
the sun, even in cloudy weather, so that it served as a sort of rural
clock. Cf. Plin. xviii. 67.
Footnote 1456:
The caper-bush blossoms in June. Chandler, ii. 275.
Footnote 1457:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 6. Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 488.
Footnote 1458:
Athen. ii. 52.
Footnote 1459:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 9. 2. Cf. vii. 3, 3. Hesiod reckons the mallow
and the asphodel among edible plants. Opp. et Dies, 41. Gœttling,
therefore, (in loc.) wonders Pythagoras should have prohibited the
mallow. Cf. Aristoph. Plut. 543. Suid. v. θύμος. t. 1. p. 1336. e.
Horat. Od. i. 32. 16.
Footnote 1460:
Colum. de Cult. Hortor. 253. Cardan in his treatise De Subtilitate
having undertaken to assign the cause why certain flowers bend towards
the sun, his antagonist, J. C. Scaliger, remarks upon his philosophy
as follows:—“De floribus, qui ad Solem convertuntur non pessime ais:
tenue humidum ad Solis calorem, se habere, ut corii ad ignem. Cæterum
adhuc integra restat quæstio. Rosis enim tenuissimum esse humidum
testantur omnia. Non convertuntur tamen. Platonici flores quosdam
etiam Lunæ dicunt esse familiares: qui sane huic Sideri, sicut illi
suo canant hymnos, sed mortalibus ignotos auribus.” Exercit. 170, § 2.
“The cause (of the bowing of the heliotrope) is somewhat obscure; but
I take it to be no other, but that the part against which the sun
heateth, waxeth more faint and flaccid in the stalk, and thereby less
able to support the flower.” Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum § 493.
-----
Besides these the ancients usually cultivated in their grounds two species of cistus, one with pale red flowers now called the long rose, the other which about midsummer has on its leaves a sort of fatty dew, of which laudanum is made;[1461] together with the blue eringo,[1462] rocket, cresses, (which were planted in ridges,) bastard parsley, penny-royal, anis,[1463] water-mint, sea-onions, monk’s rhubarb, purslain, a leaf of which placed under the tongue quenched thirst, garden coriander, hellebore, yellow, red, and white, bush origany,[1464] with its pink cones, flame-coloured fox-glove, brank-ursine, or bear’s foot, admired for its vast pyramid of white flowers, chervil, skirwort, the mournful elecampane, giant fennel, dill, mustard and wake-robin, which was sown,
Soon as the punic tree, whose numerous grains,
When thoroughly ripe, a bright red covering hides,
Itself did with its bloody blossoms clothe.[1465]
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Footnote 1461:
Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. 1. tab. 258, seq.
Footnote 1462:
Colum. x. de Cult. Hortor. 230, sqq. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 235.
Footnote 1463:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 72. 2.
Footnote 1464:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 826, 837.
Footnote 1465:
Colum. x. De Cult. Hortor. 374. English Translation. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. vii. 12. 1.
-----
Other garden herbs were the cumin, the seed of which was sown with abuse and curses,[1466] the sperage-berry, the dittander, or pepperwort, turnips,[1467] and parsnips, (found wild in Dalmatia,)[1468] with onions, garlic, and leeks.[1469] For these last Megara was famous, as Attica was for honey, which suggested to the Athenians an occasion of compliment to themselves,[1470] it having been a saying among them, that they were as superior to the Megareans as honey is to garlic and leeks.
-----
Footnote 1466:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 3. 3. Cf. Dioscor. iii. 68, seq.
Footnote 1467:
Athen. iv. 11.
Footnote 1468:
Athen. ix. 8.
Footnote 1469:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 7, 10, 11. Aristoph. Plut. 283, et schol.
Eq. 675. 494. Vesp. 680. Acharn. 166, 500. Plut. 283.
Footnote 1470:
Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 246. 252.
-----
The cultivation of that species of leek called gethyllis was carried to great perfection at Delphi,[1471] where it was an established custom, evidently with a view to the improvement of gardening, that the person who, on the day of the Theoxenia,[1472] presented the largest vegetable of this kind to Leto should receive a portion from the holy table.[1473] Polemo, who relates this circumstance says, that he had seen on these occasions leeks nearly as large as turnips. The cause of this ceremony was said to be, that Leto when great with Apollo longed for a leek.
-----
Footnote 1471:
Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 675.
Footnote 1472:
This passage has escaped the diligence of Meursius, Græc. Feriat. p.
150.
Footnote 1473:
Athen. ix. 13.
-----
Mushrooms[1474] were sedulously cultivated by the ancients, among whose methods of producing them were the following. They felled a poplar-tree[1475] and laying its trunk in the earth to rot, watered it assiduously, after which mushrooms, at the proper time sprung up. Another method was to irrigate the trunk of the fig-tree after having covered it all round with dung, though the best kind in the opinion of others were such as grew at the foot of elm and pine-trees.[1476] Those springing from the upper roots were reckoned of no value.
-----
Footnote 1474:
Dioscor. ii. 200, seq. Plin. xix. 11.
Footnote 1475:
Athen. ii. 57. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 189, 191. Eccles. 1092. Geop.
xii. 36.
Footnote 1476:
A similar observation is made in France respecting the truffles, the
best of which are supposed to grow about the roots and under the
shadow of the oak. Trollope’s Summer in Western France, ii. 352.
-----
On other occasions[1477] they chose a light sandy soil accustomed to produce reeds, then burning brushwood, &c., when the air was in a state indicating rain, this ambiguous species of vegetable started forth from the earth with the first shower. The same effect was produced by watering the ground thus prepared, though this species was supposed to be inferior. In France, the most delicate sort of mushrooms are said to proceed from the decayed root of the Eryngium.
-----
Footnote 1477:
Geop. xii. 41. 2.
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This vegetable appears to have been a favourite dish among the ancients, together with the truffle,[1478] eaten both cooked and raw;[1479] and the morrille.[1480] That particular kind, called geranion, is the modern crane’s bill. The Misu, another sort of truffle,[1481] grew chiefly in the sandy plains about Cyrene, and, as well as the Iton,[1482] found in the lofty downs of Thrace, was said to exhale an agreeable odour resembling that of animal food. These fanciful luxuries, which were produced among the rains and thunders[1483] of autumn, continued to flourish in the earth during a whole year, but were thought to be in season in spring. Truffle-seed was usually imported from Megara, Lycia, and Getulia; but in Mytelene the inhabitants were spared this expense, their sandy shores being annually sown from the neighbouring coast by the winds and showers. It has been remarked, that neither truffles nor wild onions were found near the Hellespont.[1484]
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Footnote 1478:
Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 189.
Footnote 1479:
This was more particularly the case on the Tauric Chersonese.—Theoph.
Hist. Plant. vii. 13. 8.
Footnote 1480:
Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 10. 7.
Footnote 1481:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.
Footnote 1482:
Athen. ii. 62.
Footnote 1483:
Plut. Sympos. iv. 2. 1. who relates that the ὕδνα attained to a very
large size in Elis.
Footnote 1484:
Vid. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.
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What methods the ancients employed for discovering the truffle, which grows without stem or leaf in a small cell beneath the surface of the earth, I have nowhere seen explained. At present[1485] their existence is said to be detected in Greece, not by the truffle hound, but by the divining rod. On the dry sandy downs of the Limousin, Gascogne, Angoumois, and Perigord, as well as in several parts of Italy,[1486] they are collected by the swineherds; for the hogs being extremely fond of them utter grunts of joy, and begin to turn up the earth as soon as they scent their odour, upon which the herdsmen beat the animals away, and carefully preserve the delicacy for the tables of the rich. At other times they are discovered in the following manner: the herdsmen stooping down, and looking horizontally along the surface of the Landes, observe here and there, on spots bare of grass and full of fissures, clouds of very diminutive flies hatched in the truffle, and still regaling themselves with its perfume. In some parts of Savoy they have been found two pounds in weight.
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Footnote 1485:
Walp. Mem. i. 284.
Footnote 1486:
Valmont de Bomare, Dict. D’Hist. Nat. t. ii. p. 21, seq.
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The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Volume 2 (of 3)Chapter II: Garden and Orchard (2)
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