Columella associates Ligo with Marra, a term still retained in Italy, where it denotes at the present time a mattock :

"bene cum glebis vivacis cespitis herbam,

Contundat marræ, vel fracti dente ligonis."

It would therefore seem to have been rather a kind of pickaxe, than a spade, as it is more generally interpreted.

Pala on the contrary was probably a spade, which accords well enough with the description given by Columella of this instrument, where he says,

"Tum mihi ferrato versetur robore palæ,

Dulcis humus."

Nor does it follow, as Dickson seems to infer, that the ligo and pala, because they were applied to similar uses, were necessarily of the same construction.

The Bidens, as its name implies, was an instrument with two prongs, used, we are told, for stirring up the soil, where vineyards were planted, and where therefore the plough could not be so well employed, (Col. lib. xii.)

Thus, Virgil advises, that in the case of a vineyard,

"Omne quotannis

Terque quaterque solum scindendum, glebaque versis,
Eternum frangenda bidentibus:"

and in another place directs,

"Duros jactare bidentes."

These expressions all seem to apply to a heavy mattock with two prongs, which could be em

ployed by manual force in breaking up and stirring the soil.

The Falx simply denoted a knife with a curved edge, and hence was applied to a variety of instruments, intended for different purposes in husbandry, which had this character in common.

Thus several kinds of Falx are specified by the writers of antiquity, as for instance, fœnaria, stramentaria, arboracea, vinitoria, messoria.

Columella (1. iv. c. 25) describes the several parts of that used in vine-dressing, and points out the separate uses to which each is to be applied. Of course this must have been a very different instrument, from the scythe used in mowing grass, or the pruning hook employed in reaping corn, both of which went under the common name of Falx.

LECTURE IV.

IN

COLUMELLA.

BOOK II. CONCLUDED.

N my present Lecture I shall rather reverse the order in which Columella has treated the subjects that come before him, as it seems desirable in the first instance, before speaking of the various operations of husbandry, to settle the true meaning of the terms, by which the Roman writers denoted the crops which they were in the habit of cultivating.

Of these the first in order and in importance was frumentum, usually translated wheat,' of which however there were two distinct kinds, semen adoreum and triticum. What these distinct species of grain were has been a matter of dispute, but it appears upon the whole probable, that by triticum was meant wheat;' by semen adoreum, 'spelt.'

Pliny says, that semen adoreum is the same with far, and he states that in far the grain is with difficulty separated from its husk, and is therefore sown along with it.

Now this is the character which distinguishes spelt from wheat, the husk being so adherent to

the grain, as to require a particular kind of millstone to grind it. Far too is said to be a hardier grain than triticum, and to do better in cold soils, which also is the case with spelt.

As for farrago, it was a mixture of various cereals sown together for pasture; a soil capable of continued cultivation, and well manured, being selected for the purpose.

Pliny makes mention also of the following kinds of grain:

1st of arinca, which seems to have been synonymous with olyra, an Egyptian wheat as it would appear, perhaps triticum monococcum.

2nd, of Oryza, which he says is much cultivated in India, and of which the inhabitants make a ptisan, as the Italians do of barley. Its leaves are fleshy, like a leek, but broader; its height is a cubit; its flower purple.

This has been supposed to be rice, but as the above description does not correspond with the characters of this plant, others have considered it the same as the olyra above mentioned.

3d, of Sesamum, which was also introduced from India into Italy. It is well known in Egypt, and in various parts of the East. Columella ranks it amongst the pulses, Theophrastus amongst grains. It produces an oil called syris. Tournefort observed large quantities of it growing in the isles of the Archipelago. Columella says it requires a rich and loose (putre) soil.

4th, of Secale, a very inferior sort of grain, ac

cording to Pliny, and very ungrateful to the taste. It was, probably, rye.

5th, of Avena, oats,' of which however Pliny gives but an obscure account, confounding it with avena fatua, a weed which infests most kinds of

corn.

6th, of Milium, millet,' of which he praises a newly introduced kind, large in the grain, which was probably the same as the Sorghum now cultivated in Italy.

7th, of Panicum, the Panicum Italicum. The two latter Columella informs us are to be regarded as species of grain, since in many countries they constitute the food of the population.

The former of these is now called miglio, the second panico, and they differ, in the former having its flowers on spikes, the second on panicles.

Both these kinds of grain are cultivated at present extensively in Italy, where they are used, as in the time of the Romans, for the nourishment of man; whereas in this country they are only employed for feeding poultry.

A kind of bread, Columella says, may be made of panicum, which is palatable whilst warm, and millet forms with milk a description of porridge not to be despised.

With regard to the varieties of these grains, beginning with far adoreum, Pliny tells us there are four varieties of it, one of which, a spring wheat, called halicastum, excels the rest.