Book XV. The Natural History of the Fruit-trees.

Chaps. 1-7.

Chap. 1. (1.)—The Olive.—How Long It Existed Only in Greece. At What Period It Was First Introduced into Italy, Spain, and Africa.

Theophrastus, [Hist. Plant. iv. c.] one of the most famous among the Greek writers, who flourished about the year 440 of the City of Rome, has asserted that the olive [The Olea Europæa of Linnæus. See B. xxi. c. 31.] does not grow at a distance of more than forty [This has not been observed to be the fact. It has been known to grow in ancient Mesopotamia, more than one hundred leagues from the sea.] miles from the sea. Fenestella tells us that in the year of Rome 173, being the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, it did not exist in Italy, Spain, or Africa; [It is supposed that it is indigenous to Asia, whence it was introduced into Africa and the South of Europe. There is little doubt that long before the period mentioned by Pliny, it was grown in Africa by the Carthaginians, and in the South of Gaul, at the colony of Massilia.] whereas at the present day it has crossed the Alps even, and has been introduced into the two provinces of Gaul and the middle of Spain. In the year of Rome 505, Appius Claudius, grandson of Appius Claudius Cæcus, and L. Junius being consuls, twelve pounds of oil sold for an as; and at a later period, in the year 680, M. Seius, son of Lucius, the curule ædile, regulated the price of olive oil at Rome, at the rate of ten pounds for the as, for the whole year. A person will be the less surprised at this, when he learns that twenty-two years after, in the third consulship of Cn. Pompeius, Italy was able to export olive oil to the provinces.

Hesiod, [This work of Hesiod is no longer in existence; but the assertion is exaggerated, even if he alludes to the growth of the tree from seed. Fée remarks that a man who has sown the olive at twenty, may gather excellent fruit before he arrives at old age. It is more generally propagated by slips or sets. If the trunk is destroyed by accident, the roots will throw out fresh suckers.] who looked upon an acquaintance with agriculture as conducive in the very highest degree to the comforts of life, has declared that there was no one who had ever gathered fruit from the olive-tree that had been sown by his own hands, so slow was it in reaching maturity in those times; whereas, now at the present day, it is sown in nurseries even, and if transplanted will bear fruit the following year.

Chap. 2.—The Nature of the Olive, and of New Olive Oil.

Fabianus maintains that the olive will grow [This is the case. We may remark that the tree will grow in this country, but the fruit never comes to maturity.] neither in very cold climates, nor yet in very hot ones. Virgil [Georg. ii. 85, also ii. 420.] has mentioned three varieties of the olive, the orchites, [Probably the Olea maximo fructu of Tournefort. It has its name from the Greek ὄρχις the “testis,” a name by which it is still known in some parts of Provence.] the radius, [Or “shuttle” olive. Probably the modern pickoline, or long olive.] and the posia; [Probably the Olea media rotunda præcox of Tournefort. It is slightly bitter.] and says that they require no raking or pruning, nor, in fact, any attention whatever. There is no doubt that in the case of these plants, soil and climate are the things of primary importance; but still, it is usual to prune them at the same time as the vine, and they are improved by lopping between them every here and there. The gathering of the olive follows that of the grape, and there is even a greater degree of skill required in preparing [This is so much the case, that though the olives of Spain and Portugal are among the finest, their oils are of the very worst quality.] oil than in making wine; for the very same olives will frequently give quite different results. The first oil of all, produced from the raw [It does not appear that the method of preparing oil by the use of boiling water was known to the ancients. Unripe olives produce an excellent oil, but in very small quantities. Hence they are rarely used for the purpose.] olive before it has begun to ripen, is considered preferable to all the others in flavour; in this kind, too, the first [Called “virgin,” or “native” oil in France, and very highly esteemed.] droppings of the press are the most esteemed, diminishing gradually in goodness and value; and this, whether the wicker-work [Sporta.] basket is used in making it, or whether, following the more recent plan, the pulp is put in a stick strainer, with narrow spikes and interstices. [“Exilibus regulis.” A kind of wooden strainer, apparently invented to supersede the wicker, or basket strainer.] The riper the berry, the more unctuous the juice, and the less agreeable the taste. [It is more insipid the riper the fruit, and the less odorous.] To obtain a result both abundant and of excellent flavour, the best time to gather it is when the berry is just on the point of turning black. In this state it is called “druppa” by us, by the Greeks, “drypetis.”

In addition to these distinctions, it is of importance to observe whether the berry ripens in the press or while on the branch; whether the tree has been watered, or whether the fruit has been nurtured solely by its own juices, and has imbibed nothing else but the dews of heaven.

Chap. 3. (2.)—Olive Oil: The Countries in Which It Is Produced, and Its Various Qualities.

It is not with olive oil as it is with wine, for by age it acquires a bad flavour, [By absorbing the oxygen of the air. It may be preserved two or three years even, in vessels hermetically closed. The oil of France keeps better than any other.] and at the end of a year it is already old. This, if rightly understood, is a wise provision on the part of Nature: wine, which is only produced for the drunkard, she has seen no necessity for us to use when new; indeed, by the fine flavour which it acquires with age, she rather invites us to keep it; but, on the other hand, she has not willed that we should be thus sparing of oil, and so has rendered its use common and universal by the very necessity there is of using it while fresh.

In the production of this blessing as well, [As well as the grape.] Italy holds the highest rank among all countries, [In consequence of the faulty mode of manufacture, the oil of Italy is now inferior to that of France. The oil of Aix is particularly esteemed.] and more particularly the territory of Venafrum, [In Campania. See B. xvii. c.. Horace and Martial speak in praise of the Venafran olive. Hardouin suggests that Licinius Crassus may have introduced the Licinian olive.] that part of it in especial which produces the Licinian oil; the qualities of which have conferred upon the Licinian olive the very highest renown. It is our unguents which have brought this oil into such great esteem, the peculiar odour of it adapting itself so well to the full development of their qualities; at the same time its delicate flavour equally enlists the palate in its behalf. In addition to this, birds will never touch the berry of the Licinian olive.

Next to Italy, the contest is maintained, and on very equal terms, between the territories of Istria and of Bætica. The next rank for excellence is claimed by the other provinces of our Empire, with the exception of Africa, [The heat of Africa is unfavourable to the olive.] the soil of which is better adapted for grain. That country Nature has given exclusively to the cereals; of oil and wine she has all but deprived it, securing it a sufficient share of renown by its abundant harvests. As to the remaining particulars connected with the olive, they are replete with erroneous notions, and I shall have occasion to show that there is no part of our agricultural economy upon which people have been more generally mistaken.

(3.) The olive is composed of a stone, oil, flesh, and amurca: [The fæces, marc, or lees. This is a crude juice contained in the cellular tissue of the fruit, known as viridine or chlorophylle.] the last being a bitter liquid, principally composed of water; hence it is that in seasons of drought it is less plentiful, and more abundant when rains [This is owing, Fée says, to a sort of fermentation, which alters the tissue of the cells containing the oil, displaces the constituent elements, and forms others, such as mucus, sugar, acetic acid, ammoniac, &c. When ripe, the olive contains four oils; that of the skin, the flesh, the stone, and the kernel.] have prevailed. The oil is a juice peculiar to the olive, a fact more particularly stated in reference to its unripe state, as we have already mentioned when speaking of omphacium. [In B. xii. c..] This oil continues on the increase up to the rising of Arcturus, [See B. xviii. c. 74.] or in other words, the sixteenth day before the calends of October; [th of September.] after which the increase is in the stone and the flesh. When drought has been followed by abundant rains, the oil is spoilt, and turns to amurca. It is the colour of this amurca that makes the olive turn black; hence, when the berry is just beginning to turn that colour, there is but little amurca in it, and before that period none at all. It is an error then, on the part of persons, to suppose that that is the commencement of maturity, which is in reality only the near approach of corruption. A second error, too, is the supposition that the oil increases proportionally to the flesh of the berry, it being the fact that the oil is all the time undergoing a change into flesh, and the stone is growing larger and larger within. It is for this reason more particularly, that care is taken to water the tree at this period; the real result of all this care and attention, as well as of the fall of copious rains, being, that the oil in reality is absorbed as the berry increases in size, unless fine dry weather should happen to set in, which naturally tends to contract the volume of the fruit. According to Theophrastus, [De Causis, B. i. c. 23.] heat is the sole primary cause of the oleaginous principle; for which reason it is, that in the presses, [This cannot possibly increase the oil, but it would render it more fluid, and thereby facilitate its escape from the cells of the berry.] and in the cellars even, great fires are lighted to improve the quality of the oil.

A third error arises from misplaced economy: to spare the expense of gathering, people are in the habit of waiting till the berry falls from the tree. Others, again, who wish to follow a middle course in this respect, beat the fruit off with poles, and so inflict injury on the tree and ensure loss in the succeeding year; indeed, there was a very ancient regulation in existence relative to the gathering of the olive—“Neither pull nor beat the olive-tree.” [But Cato, Re Rust. c. 144, adds the very significant words, “injussu domini aut custodis.” “Without the leave of the owner or the keeper.”] Those who would observe a still greater degree of precaution, strike the branches lightly with a reed on one side of them; but even then the tree is reduced to bearing fruit but once in two years, [It is found that the olive, after an abundant season, will not bear in the following year; probably the result of exhaustion.] in consequence of the injury done to the buds. Not less injurious, however, are the results of waiting till the berries fall from the tree; for, by remaining on it beyond the proper time, they deprive the crop that is coming on of its due share of nutriment, by occupying its place: a clear proof of which is, that if they are not gathered before the west winds prevail, they are found to have acquired renewed strength, and are all the later before they fall.

Chap. 4.—Fifteen Varieties of Olives.

The first olive that is gathered after the autumn is that known as the “posia,” [More commonly spelt “pausia.”] the berry of which, owing to a vicious method of cultivation, and not any fault on the part of Nature, has the most flesh upon it. Next to this is the orchites, which contains the greatest quantity of oil, and then, after that, the radius. As these are of a peculiarly delicate nature, the heat very rapidly takes effect upon them, and the amurca they contain causes them to fall. On the other hand, the gathering of the tough, hard-skinned olive is put off so late as the month of March, it being well able to resist the effects of moisture, and, consequently, very small. Those varieties known as the Licinian, the Cominian, the Contian, and the Sergian, by the Sabines called the “royal” [“Regia.” It is impossible to identify these varieties.] olive, do not turn black before the west winds prevail, or, in other words, before the sixth day before [th of February.] the ides of February. At this period it is generally thought that they begin to ripen, and as a most excellent oil is extracted from them, experience would seem to give its support to a theory which, in reality, is altogether wrong. The growers say that in the same degree that cold diminishes the oil, the ripeness of the berry augments it; whereas, in reality, the goodness of the oil is owing, not to the period at which the olives are gathered, but to the natural properties of this peculiar variety, in which the oil is remarkably slow in turning to amurca.

A similar error, too, is committed by those who keep the olives, when gathered, upon a layer of boards, and do not press the fruit till it has thrown out a sweat; it being the fact that every hour lost tends to diminish the oil and increase the amurca: the consequence is, that, according to the ordinary computation, a modius of olives yields no more than six pounds of oil. No one, however, ever takes account of the quantity of amurca to ascertain, in reference to the same kind of berry, to what extent it increases daily in amount. Then, again, it is a very general error [This assertion of Pliny is not generally true. The large olives of Spain yield oil very plentifully.] among practical persons to suppose that the oil increases proportionably to the increased size of the berry; and more particularly so when it is so clearly proved that such is not the case, with reference to the variety known as the royal olive, by some called majorina, and by others phaulia; [Probably a member of the variety known to naturalists as the Olea fructu majori, carne crassâ, of Tournefort, the royal olive or “triparde” of the French. The name is thought to be from the Greek φαῦλος, the fruit being considered valueless from its paucity of oil.] this berry being of the very largest size, and yet yielding a minimum of juice. In Egypt, [There are but few olive-trees in either Egypt or Decapolis at the present day, and no attempts are made to extract oil from them.] too, the berries, which are remarkably meaty, are found to produce but very little oil; while those of Decapolis, in Syria, are so extremely small, that they are no bigger than a caper; and yet they are highly esteemed for their flesh. [“Carnis.” He gives this name to the solid part, or pericarp.] It is for this reason that the olives from the parts beyond sea are preferred for table to those of Italy, though, at the same time, they are very inferior to them for making oil.

In Italy, those of Picenum and of Sidicina [See B. iii. c. 9.] are considered the best for table. These are kept apart from the others and steeped in salt, after which, like other olives, they are put in amurca, or else boiled wine; indeed, some of them are left to float solely in their own oil, [These methods are not now adopted for preserving the olive. The fruit are first washed in an alkaline solution, and then placed in salt and water. The colymbas was so called from κολυμβάω, “to swim,” in its own oil, namely. Dioscorides descants on the medicinal properties of the colymbades. B. i. c. 140.] without any adventitious mode of preparation, and are then known as colymbades: sometimes the berry is crushed, and then seasoned with green herbs to flavour it. Even in an unripe state the olive is rendered fit for eating by being sprinkled with boiling water; it is quite surprising, too, how readily it will imbibe sweet juices, and retain an adventitious flavour from foreign substances. With this fruit, as with the grape, there are purple [There are several varieties known of this colour, and more particularly the fruit of the Olea atro-rubens of Gouan.] varieties, and the posia is of a complexion approaching to black. Besides those already mentioned, there are the superba [The Spanish olive, Hardouin says. Fée thinks that the name “superba,” “haughty,” is given figuratively, as meaning rough and austere.] and a remarkably luscious kind, which dries of itself, and is even sweeter than the raisin: this last variety is extremely rare, and is to be found in Africa and in the vicinity of Emerita [The olives of the present Merida, in Spain, are of a rough, disagreeable flavour.] in Lusitania.

The oil of the olive is prevented from getting [This seems to be the meaning of “pinguis;” but, as Fée observes, salt would have no such effect as here stated, but would impart a disagreeable flavour to the oil.] thick and rancid by the admixture of salt. By making an incision in the bark of the tree, an aromatic odour may be imparted [Fée regards this assertion as quite fabulous.] to the oil. Any other mode of seasoning, such, for instance, as those used with reference to wine, is not at all gratifying to the palate; nor do we find so many varieties in oil as there are in the produce of the grape, there being, in general, but three different degrees of goodness. In fine oil the odour is more penetrating, but even in the very best it is but short-lived.

Chap. 5. (4.)—The Nature of Olive Oil.

It is one of the properties of oil to impart warmth to the body, and to protect it against the action of cold; while at the same time it promotes coolness in the head when heated. The Greeks, those parents of all vices, have abused it by making it minister to luxury, and employing it commonly in the gymnasium: indeed, it is a well-known fact that the governors of those establishments have sold the scrapings [It will be stated in B. xxviii. c. 13, to what purposes this abominable collection of filth was applied.] of the oil used there for a sum of eighty thousand sesterces. The majesty of the Roman sway has conferred high honour upon the olive: crowned with it, the troops of the Equestrian order are wont to defile upon the ides of July; [th of July. He alludes to the inspection of the Equites, which originally belonged to the Censors, but afterwards to the Emperors. On this occasion there was “recognitio,” or “review,” and then a “transvectio,” or “procession” of the horsemen.] it is used, too, by the victor in the minor triumphs of the ovation. [The ovation was a lesser triumph, at which the general entered the city not in a chariot, but on foot. In later times, however, the victor entered on horseback: and a wreath of myrtle, sometimes laurel, was worn by him. For further particulars as to the ovation, see c. of the present Book.] At Athens, also, they are in the habit of crowning the conqueror with olive; and at Olympia, the Greeks employ the wild olive [Or “oleaster.”] for a similar purpose.

Chap. 6. (5.)—The Culture of the Olive: Its Mode of Preservation. The Method of Making Olive Oil.

We will now proceed to mention the precepts given by Cato [De Re Rust. c. 6.] in relation to this subject. Upon a warm, rich [A middling or even poor soil is chosen for the olive at the present day.] soil, he recommends us to sow the greater radius, the Salentina, the orchites, the posia, the Sergian, the Cominian, and the albicera; [Apparently meaning the “white wax” olive.] but with a remarkable degree of prudence he adds, that those varieties ought to be planted in preference which are considered to thrive best in the neighbouring localities. In a cold [In warm countries, a site exposed to the north is chosen: in colder ones, a site which faces the south.] and meagre soil he says that the Licinian olive should be planted; and he informs us that a rich or hot soil has the effect, in this last variety, of spoiling the oil, while the tree becomes exhausted by its own fertility, and is liable to be attacked by a sort of red moss. [See B. xvii. c.. This moss has not been identified with precision; but the leaf of the olive is often attacked by an erysiphus, known to naturalists as the Alphitomorpha communis; but it is white, not of a red colour.] He states it as his opinion that the olive grounds ought to have a western aspect, and, indeed, he approves of no other.

(6.) According to him, the best method of preserving olives is to put the orchites and the posia, while green, in a strong brine, or else to bruise them first, and preserve them in mastich oil. [Fée queries how any one could possibly eat olives that had been steeped in a solution of mastich. They must have been nauseous in the extreme.] The more bitter the olive, he says, the better the oil; but they should be gathered from the ground the very moment they fall, and washed if they are dirty. He says that three days will be quite sufficient for drying them, and that if it is frosty weather, they should be pressed on the fourth, care being taken to sprinkle them with salt. Olives, he informs us, [De Re Rust. c. 64.] lose oil by being kept in a boarded store-room, and deteriorate in quality; the same being the case, too, if the oil is left with the amurca and the pulp, [“Fracibus.” The opinion of Pliny, that olives deteriorate by being left in the store-room, is considered to be well founded; the olives being apt to ferment, to the deterioration of the oil: at the same time, he is wrong in supposing that the amount of oil diminishes by keeping the berries.] or, in other words, the flesh of the olive that forms the residue and becomes the dregs. For this reason, he recommends that the oil should be poured off several times in the day, and then put into vessels or cauldrons [“Cortinas.” If we may judge from the name, these vessels were three-footed, like a tripod.] of lead, for copper vessels will spoil it, he says. All these operations, however, should be carried on with presses heated and tightly closed, [There are no good grounds for this recommendation, which is based on the erroneous supposition that heat increases the oil in the berry. The free circulation of the air also ought not to be restricted, as nothing is gained by it. In general, the method of extracting the oil is the same with the moderns as with the ancients, though these last did not employ the aid of boiling water.] and exposed to the air as little as possible—for which reason he recommends that wood should never be cut there, the most convenient fuel for the fires being the stones of the berries. From the cauldron the oil should be poured into vats, [Labra.] in order that the pulp and the amurca may be disengaged in a solidified form: to effect which object the vessels should be changed as often as convenient, while at the same time the osier baskets should be carefully cleaned with a sponge, that the oil may run out in as clean and pure a state as possible.

In later times, the plan has been adopted of invariably crushing the olives in boiling water, and at once putting them whole in the press—a method of effectually extracting the amurca—and then, after crushing them in the oil-press, subjecting them to pressure once more. It is recommended, that not more than one hundred modii should be pressed at one time: the name given to this quantity is “factus,” [A “making,” or “batch.”] while the oil that flows out at the first pressure is called the “flos.” [Or “flower.”] Four men, working at two presses day and night, ought to be able to press out three factuses of olives.

Chap. 7. (7.)—Forty-Eight Varieties of Artificial Oils. The Cicus-tree or Croton, or Sili, or Sesamum.

In those times artificial oils had not been introduced, and hence it is, I suppose, that we find no mention made of them by Cato; at the present day the varieties are very numerous. We will first speak of those [It may be remarked, that in this Chapter Pliny totally confounds fixed oils, volatile oils, and medicinal oils. Those in the list which he here gives, and which are not otherwise noticed in the Notes, may be considered to belong to this last class.] which are produced from trees, and among them more particularly the wild olive. [The oleaster furnishes but little oil, and it is seldom extracted. The oil is thinner than ordinary olive oil, and has a stronger odour.] This olive is small, and much more bitter than the cultivated one, and hence its oil is only used in medicinal preparations: the oil that bears the closest resemblance to it is that extracted from the chamelæa, [The Daphne Cneorum and Daphne Cnidium of botanists. See B. xiii. c., also B. xxiv. c. 82. Fée doubts if an oil was ever made from the chamelæa.] a shrub which grows among the rocks, and not more than a palm in height; the leaves and berries being similar to those of the wild olive. A third oil is that made of the fruit of the cicus, [See B. xxiii. c. 41: the Ricinus communis of Linnæus, which abounds in Egypt at the present day. Though it appears to have been formerly sometimes used for the table, at the present day the oil is only known as “castor” oil, a strong purgative. It is one of the fixed oils. The Jews and Abyssinian Christians say that it was under this tree that Jonah sat.] a tree which grows in Egypt in great abundance; by some it is known as croton, by others as sili, and by others, again, as wild sesamum: it is not so very long since this tree was first introduced here. In Spain, too, it shoots up with great rapidity to the size of the olive-tree, having a stem like that of the ferula, the leaf of the vine, and a seed that bears a resemblance to a small pale grape. Our people are in the habit of calling it “ricinus,” [A “tick.”] from the resemblance of the seed to that insect. It is boiled in water, [This method, Fée says, is still pursued in America.] and the oil that swims on the surface is then skimmed off: but in Egypt, where it grows in a greater abundance, the oil is extracted without employing either fire or water for the purpose, the seed being first sprinkled with salt, and then subjected to pressure: eaten with food this oil is repulsive, but it is very useful for burning in lamps.

Amygdalinum, by some persons known as “metopium,” [See B. xiii. c.. One of the fixed oils.] is made of bitter almonds dried and beaten into a cake, after which they are steeped in water, and then beaten again. An oil is extracted from the laurel also, with the aid of olive oil. Some persons use the berries only for this purpose, while others, again, employ the leaves [An essential oil may be extracted from either; it is of acrid taste, green, and aromatic; but does not seem to have been known to the ancients. The berries give by decoction a fixed oil, of green colour, sweet, and odoriferous. The oils in general here spoken of by Pliny as extracted from the laurel, are medicinal oils.] and the outer skin of the berries: some add storax also, and other odoriferous substances. The best kind for this purpose is the broad-leaved or wild laurel, [The Laurus latifolia of Bauhin.] with a black berry. The oil, too, of the black myrtle is of a similar nature; that with the broad leaf [The Myrtus latifolia Romana of Bauhin. It yields an essential oil, and by its decoction might give a fixed oil, in small quantity, but very odoriferous. As boiled with olive oil, he treats it as a volatile oil.] is reckoned also the best. The berries are first sprinkled with warm water, and then beaten, after which they are boiled: some persons take the more tender leaves, and boil them in olive oil, and then subject them to pressure, while others, again, steep them in oil, and leave the mixture to ripen in the sun. The same method is also adopted with the cultivated myrtle, but the wild variety with small berries is generally preferred; by some it is known as the oxymyrsine, by others as the chamæmyrsine, and by others, again, as the acoron, [See B. xxv. c. 100. This myrtle is the Ruscus aculeatus of Linnæus.] from its strong resemblance to that plant, it being short and branching.

An oil is made, too, from the citrus, [See B. xiii. c., and B xxiii. c. 45. A volatile oil might be extracted from the citrus, if one of the thuyæ, as also from the cypress.] and from the cypress; also, from the walnut, [See B. xxiii. c. 45. It is a fixed oil, still considerably used in some parts of Europe.] and known by the name of “caryinon,” [From the Greek καρύα, a “walnut.”] and from the fruit of the cedar, being generally known as “pisselæon.” [“Pitch oil.” See B. xxiv. c. 11. This would be a volatile oil.] Oil is extracted from the grain of Cnidos, [See B. xxiii. c. 45, also B. xiii. c.. Fée is of opinion, that as no fixed oil can be extracted from the Daphne Cnidium or Daphne Cneorum, Pliny must allude to a medicinal composition, like the oil of wild myrtle, previously mentioned.] the seed being first thoroughly cleaned, and then pounded; and from mastich [A fixed oil. See B. xii. c.. The seeds were used for making it. See B. xxiii. c. 45.] also. As to the oil called “cyprinum,” [See B. xii. c., and B. xxiii. c. 45. The leaves of the Lawsonia are very odoriferous.] and that extracted from the Egyptian [The myrobalanus, or ben. See B. xii. c., and B. xxiii. c. 46.] berry, we have already mentioned the mode in which they are prepared as perfumes. The Indians, too, are said to extract oils from the chesnut, [Neither the chesnut nor rice produce any kind of fixed oil.] sesamum, and rice, [See B. xvii. c..] and the Ichthyophagi [Or Fish-eaters. See B. xxxii. c. 38. This is one of the fixed oils.] from fish. Scarcity of oil for the supply of lamps sometimes compels us to make it from the berries [In reality, no fixed oil can be obtained from them.] of the plane-tree, which are first steeped in salt and water.

Œnanthinum, [Or wild vine. See B. xii. c., and B. xiii. c..] again, is made from the œnanthe, as we have already stated when speaking of perfumes. In making gleucinum, [Not an oil, so much as a medicinal preparation. Dioscorides mentions as component parts of it, omphacium, sweet rush, Celtic nard, aspalathus, costus, and must. It received its name from γλεῦκος “must.”] must is boiled with olive-oil at a slow heat; some persons, however, do not employ fire in making it, but leave a vessel, filled with oil and must, surrounded with grape husks, for two and twenty days, taking care to stir it twice a day: by the end of that period the whole of the must is imbibed by the oil. Some persons mix with this not only sampsuchum, but perfumes of still greater price: that, too, which is used in the gymnasia is scented with perfumes as well, but those of the very lowest quality. Oils are made, too, from aspalathus, [The Convolvulus scoparius of Linnæus. See B. xii. c, and B. xiii. c..] from calamus, [See B. xii. c..] balsamum, [See B. xii. c., and B. xiii. c..] cardamum, [See B. xii. c..] melilot, Gallic nard, panax, [See B. xii. c..] sampsuchum, [See B. xiii. c. 2, p..] helenium, and root of cinnamomum, [See B. xii. c..] the plants being first left to steep in oil, and then pressed. In a similar manner, too, rhodinum [See B. xiii. c..] is made from roses, and juncinum from the sweet rush, bearing a remarkable [Fée doubts the possibility of such a resemblance.] resemblance to rose-oil: other oils, again, are extracted from henbane, [Hyoscyamus. A medicinal oil is still extracted from it. See B. xxiii. c. 49.] lupines, [This medicinal oil is no longer used. The Lupinus albus was formerly held in greater esteem than it is now.] and narcissus. Great quantities of oil are made in Egypt, too, of radish [The Raphanus sativus of Linnæus. See B. xix. c. 26. This is one of the fixed oils; varieties of it are rape oil, and colza oil, now so extensively used.] seed, or else of a common grass known there as chortinon. [From the Greek χόρτος, “grass.” This medicinal oil would be totally without power or effect.] Sesamum [A fixed oil is still extracted in Egypt from the grain known as sesamum.] also yields an oil, and so does the nettle, [See B. xxii. c. 15.] its oil being known as “cnidinum.” [From κνίδη, a “nettle.” The nettle, or Urtica urens of Linnæus, has no oleaginous principles in its seed.] In other countries, too, an oil is extracted from lilies [Lily oil is still used as a medicinal composition: it is made from the petals of the white lily, Lilium candidum of Linnæus.] left to steep in the open air, and subjected to the influence of the sun, moon, and frosts. On the borders of Cappadocia and Galatia, they make an oil from the herbs of the country, known as “Selgicum,” [From Selga, a town of Pisidia. See B. xxiii. c. 49.] remarkably useful for strengthening the tendons, similar, in fact, to that of Iguvium [See B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxiii. c. 49.] in Italy. From pitch an oil [A volatile oil, mixed with a small proportion of empyreumatic oil and carbon.] is extracted, that is known as “pissinum” it is made by boiling the pitch, and spreading fleeces over the vessels to catch the steam, and then wringing them out: the most approved kind is that which comes from Bruttium, the pitch of that country being remarkably rich and resinous: the colour of this oil is yellow.

There is an oil that grows spontaneously in the maritime parts of Syria, known to us as “elæomeli;” [“Oil-honey.” Probably a terebinthine, or oleo-resin. See B. xxiii. c. 50.] it is an unctuous substance which distils from certain trees, of a thicker consistency than honey, but somewhat thinner than resin; it has a sweet flavour, and is employed for medicinal purposes. Old olive oil [When rancid and oxygenized by age, it has an irritating quality, and may be found useful for herpetic diseases.] is of use for some kinds of maladies; it is thought to be particularly useful, too, in the preservation of ivory from decay: [It very probably will have this effect; but at the expense of the colour of the ivory, which very soon will turn yellow.] at all events, the statue of Saturn, at Rome, is filled with oil in the interior.