[60] Because, though the last comer, he had obtained the best site in the locality.
[61] Od. v. 469. If the river has a bed of sand and high banks, it is really advantageous than otherwise.
[62] In B. xvii. c. 3.
[63] Not to be found in his works which have come down to us.
[64] Prunus spinosa of Linnæus.
[65] See B. xix. c. [30]; probably one of the genus Allium sphærocephalum of Linnæus.
[66] “Herba pratensis.” It is not known with certainty to what plant he alludes. Fée suggests that it may be the Poa pratensis, or else a phleum, alopecurus, or dactylis. All the plants here mentioned by Pliny will thrive in a calcareous soil, and their presence, as Fée remarks, is of bad augury.
[67] He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. l. 412:—
——Laudato ingentia rura,
Exiguum colito——