The garden plants, too, like the rest of the vegetable productions, are subject to certain maladies. Thus, for[1226] instance, ocimum, when old, degenerates into wild thyme, and sisymbrium[1227] into mint, while the seed of an old cabbage produces rape, and vice versâ. Cummin, too, if not kept well hoed, is killed by hæmodorum,[1228], a plant with a single stalk, a root similar to a bulb in appearance, and never found except in a thin, meagre soil. Besides this, cummin is liable to a peculiar disease of its own, the scab:[1229] ocimum, too, turns pale at the rising of the Dog-star. All plants, indeed, will turn of a yellow complexion on the approach of a woman who has the menstrual discharge[1230] upon her.
There are various kinds of insects,[1231] too, that breed upon the garden plants—fleas, for instance, upon turnips, and caterpillars and maggots upon radishes, as well as lettuces and cabbages; besides which, the last two are exposed to the attacks of slugs and snails. The leek, too, is infested with peculiar insects of its own; which may very easily be taken, however, by laying dung upon the plants, the insects being in the habit of burrowing in it. Sabinus Tiro says, in his book entitled “Cepurica,”[1232] which he dedicated to Mæcenas, that it is not advisable to touch rue, cunila, mint, or ocimum with any implement of iron.
CHAP. 58.—THE PROPER REMEDIES FOR THESE MALADIES. HOW ANTS ARE BEST DESTROYED. THE BEST REMEDIES AGAINST CATERPILLARS AND FLIES.
The same author recommends as a remedy against ants, which are by no means the slightest plague in a garden that is not kept well watered, to stop up the mouths of their holes with sea-slime or ashes. But the most efficient way of destroying them is with the aid of the plant heliotropium;[1233] some persons, too, are of opinion that water in which an unburnt brick has been soaked is injurious to them. The best protection for turnips is to sow a few fitches with them, and for cabbages chickpeas, these having the effect of keeping away caterpillars. If, however, this precaution should have been omitted, and the caterpillars have already made their appearance, the best remedy is to throw upon the vegetables a decoction of wormwood,[1234] or else of house-leek,[1235] known to some as “aïzoüm,” a kind of herb already mentioned by us. If cabbage-seed, before it is sown, is steeped in the juice of house-leek, the cabbages, it is said, are sure not be attacked by any insect.
It is said, too, that all caterpillars may be effectually exterminated, if the skull[1236] of a beast of burden is set up upon a stake in the garden, care being taken to employ that of a female only. There is a story related, too, that a river crab, hung up in the middle of the garden, is a preservative against the attacks of caterpillars. Again, there are some persons who are in the habit of touching with slips of blood-red cornel[1237] such plants as they wish to preserve from caterpillars. Flies,[1238] too, infest well-watered gardens, and more particularly so, if there happen to he any shrubs there; they may be got rid of, however, by burning galbanum.[1239]
(11.) With reference to the deterioration to which seed is subject,[1240] there are some seeds which keep better than others, such, for instance, as that of coriander, beet, leeks, cresses, mustard, rocket, cunila, nearly all the pungent plants in fact. The seed, on the other hand, of orage, ocimum, gourds, and cucumbers, is not so good for keeping. All the summer seeds, too, last longer than the winter ones; but scallion seed is the very worst for keeping of them all. But of those, even, which keep the very longest, there is none that will keep beyond four years—for sowing[1241] purposes, at least; for culinary purposes, they are fit for use beyond that period.
CHAP. 59.—WHAT PLANTS ARE BENEFITTED BY SALT WATER.
A peculiar remedy for the maladies to which radishes, beet, rue, and cunila are subject, is salt water, which has also the additional merit of conducing very materially to their sweetness and fertility. Other plants, again, are equally benefitted by being watered with fresh water, the most desirable for the purpose being that which is the coldest and the sweetest to drink: pond and drain-water, on the other hand, are not so good, as they are apt to carry the seeds of weeds along with them. It is rain,[1242] however, that forms the principal aliment of plants; in addition to which, it kills the insects as they develope themselves upon them.