There are found in the kingdom of Naples certain stones,[[2292]] which being sunk in the ground, covered with a thin layer of earth, and irrigated with warm water, produce mushrooms in four days. These stones are preserved both at Rome and at Naples in cellars, for the production of mushrooms. Occasionally, however, contrivances of this sort prove fatal. In a convent in France where the nuns cultivated mushrooms on a hot bed in a cellar, the noisome exhalations destroyed several persons sent down to collect them.[[2293]]
It has been seen that the yew-tree of Arcadia was much used by cabinet-makers; but the Italian yew[[2294]] is mentioned by Greek botanists only for its singular and noxious properties, since the birds, they inform us, which ate of its berries turned black, while men were afflicted with troublesome diseases. Around that of Gaul the imagination had woven a tissue of terrors almost equal to that which modern times have cast about the upas; for, to sleep, or even to recline, beneath its shade, was supposed to cause dangerous maladies and occasionally even death.
The plant of most deadly qualities known to the ancients grew plentifully in the mountains of the Vestini, neighbours of the Sabines.[[2295]] It was identical in nature with that of Pontos, and many extraordinary circumstances are related of its effects. By the mere touch it was said to possess the power to benumb the scorpion, which again recovered its activity if brought in contact with the hellebore. It was used by hunters in the chace to destroy wild beasts, and by physicians for various purposes. At present it appears to be found chiefly among the recesses of the Rhætian Alps, from whence it passes to the Papal States and the kingdom of Naples, in both which countries there is a particular class of men whose sole occupation is the extirpation of wolves, and who formerly used to sell this poison openly on the bridge of St. Angelo, at Rome.[[2296]]
Among the other exports of Italy may be enumerated the squills of Minturnæ,[[2297]] which exceeded in size those of Smyrna, and the lobsters of Alexandria: amber, too, and coal, of which there are said to have been mines in Liguria,[[2298]] found their way into the channels of commerce. The amber of the Po existed only in the regions of mythology.[[2299]]
Calabria supplied pitch,[[2300]] and bronze from Temessa;[[2301]] Etruria, resin,[[2302]] figured gold, plate and articles in bronze,[[2303]] Thurii, gypsum, and wine;[[2304]] Tarentum, fine gauze-like fabrics; Italy,[[2305]] generally, groats and salt-beef,[[2306]] whetstones, wax,[[2307]] and adarces, used as a dentifrice[dentifrice];[[2308]] Algidum, transparent radishes;[[2309]] Apulia, capparis;[[2310]] Campania, wheat, from which the best gruel was made, zea, and panic.[[2311]] Northern Italy, which abounded in forests, reared immense droves of pigs, which were fed on acorns, so that Rome was almost entirely supplied from thence with pork and bacon.[[2312]] It likewise exported millet, pitch,[[2313]] exceedingly fine wool from the neighbourhood of Mutina and the banks of the Scultenna,[[2314]] long coarse wool from Liguria and the country of the Symbri,[[2315]] with a middling sort from the neighbourhood of Padua, with which coats, carpets, with several varieties of shaggy cloth, were manufactured.[[2316]]
This part of Italy, likewise, produced immense quantities of wine, which the inhabitants laid up in tuns as large as dwelling-houses.[[2317]] Gold mines were anciently worked in the country of the Vercelli.[[2318]]
The chief exports of Sicily were wheat,[[2319]] of which the best and cleanest came from the neighbourhood of Agrigentum;[[2320]] cheese,[[2321]] which appears to have been made in all parts of the island, as far back at least as the days of Polyphemos; hogs,[[2322]] pigeons, and doves,[[2323]] whose chief haunt was about the temple of Aphroditè[[2324]] on Mount Eryx; variegated robes,[[2325]] costly furniture, more particularly plate and pillows,[[2326]] and superbly wrought chariots.[[2327]] The Sicilian saffron,[[2328]] grown in the neighbourhood of Centuripa was of an inferior quality, but seems nevertheless to have been imported into Italy,[[2329]] where it is supposed to have been applied to the dyeing of the cedar beams used in the construction of temples.
The honey of Mount Hybla,[[2330]] celebrated through all antiquity, constituted another important article of commerce, as did likewise, more particularly, the Adrian and the Mamertinian.
Among the better known plants of Sicily were the marjoram,[[2331]] and the cactus, the latter of which was eaten, whether fresh or pickled.[[2332]]
From the neighbourhood of Tetras, was obtained a sort of stone which became light and porous in burning so as to resemble the pumice.[[2333]]