Tenuis ubi argilla, et dumosis calculus arvis, Indicio est, tractu surgens oleaster eodem being subject to the inundations Tenuis ubi argilla.] May translates this, where clay is scarce, which is an error; for tenuis signifies lean or hungry. Argilla is not our common clay, but potter's clay, which Columella observes is as hungry as sand. Palladia.] Pallas or Minerva was said to be the discoverer of the olive-tree. Vivacis.] We have seen, in the note on ver. 3. of this Georgick, that the olive is a slow grower, and therefore he here calls it long-lived. Oleaster.] This is a wild sort of olive, which seems to be different from the cultivated sort only by its wildness, as crabs from apples. That plant which is cultivated in our gardens un der the name of oleaster is not an olive; Tournefort refers it to his genus of elæagnus. It grows in Syria, Ethiopia, and mount Lebanon. Clusius observed it * 180 185 in great plenty also near Guadix, a city in the kingdom of Granada, as also in the south of France and Germany. It is thought to be the Cappadocian jujubs, which are mentioned by Pliny amongst the coronary flowers: "Zizipha, quæ et Cappadocia vocantur: his odoratus similis olearum floribus." flowers of the elæagnus are much like those of the olive; but the ovary of the clæagnus is placed below the petal, whereas that of the olive contained within the petal. They are very sweet, and may be smelt at some distance. The Plurimus.] See the note on ver. 187. of the first Georgick. At quæ pinguis humus, &c.] Virgil here recommends a fat, moist, fruitful soil for vines, in which he is said to differ from the other writers of agriculture, who say that a very fruitful soil will generally make a bad vineyard. Celsus, as he is quoted by Columella, says the ground for a vineyard should be neither too loose nor too hard, but ap. proaching to loose; neither poor nor very rich, but approaching to rich; neither plain nor steep, but a little rising; neither dry nor wet, but a little moist. Despicere huc summis liquuntur rupibus amnes, Hic laticis, qualem pateris libamus et auro, Sin armenta magis studium vitulosque tueri, Filicem.] There are several sorts of filex or fern. I take that of which the poet speaks to be our female fern, or brake, which covers most of the uncultivated, hilly grounds in Italy. Pateris libamus et auro.] It is agreed by the grammarians that pateris et auro is the same with aureis pateris. Pinguis Tyrrhenus.] The ancient Tuscans were famous for indulging their appetites, which made them generally fat: thus Catullus also calls them obesus Etruscus. Or perhaps he might allude to the bloated look of those who piped at the altars, as we commonly observe of our trumpeters. Pandis.] Some interpret this hollow, others bending, which seems the more poetical expression. 190 195 200 Urentes culta capellas.] We find in Varro, that the ancient Romans, when they let a farm, were accustomed to make an agreement that the tenant should not breed kids, because they destroy the trees and bushes by browsing upon them. Tarenti.] Tarentum is a city of Magna Græcia, part of the kingdom of Naples, famous for fine wool. Et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum.] Augustus Cæsar had given the fields about Mantua and Cremona to his soldiers; and Virgil löst his farm with the rest of his neighbours; but he was afterwards restored to the possession of it, by the interest of his patron Mæcenas; which is the subject of the first eclogue. Quantum longis, &c.] What Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet. Nigra fere, et presso pinguis sub vomere terra, Et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos, : At rudis enituit impulso vomere campus. the poet here says of the prodigious growth of the grass in a night's time, seems incredible; and yet we are informed by Varro, that Cæsar Vopiscus affirmed, that at Rosea, a vinepole being stuck in the ground, would be lost in the grass the next day. Nigra fere.] Columella blames the ancient writers of husbandry for insisting upon a black or grey colour as a sign of a rich land. Virgil seems to have been aware of this objection, and therefore cautiously puts in fere.. Mr. Evelyn, however, seems to recommend a black earth, and such as is here mentioned by the poet. Presso pinguis sub vomere terra.] A rich land is universally allowed to be good for 205. 210 plough, to make the share enter deeper. Putre solum.] Putre signifies rotten, crumbling, or loose. The poet explains it here himself, and tells us it is such a soil as we procure by ploughing.— Therefore in this place he recommends such a soil for corn as is in its own nature loose and crumbling; because we endeavour to make other soils so by art. Iratus.] This epithet seems to be added to express the anger or impatience of the ploughman, who sees his land overgrown with wood, which otherwise might bear good crops of corn. At rudis enituit, &c.] Rudis does not signify any particular sort of soil, but only that which has not yet been cultivated. Enituit is used by the poet to express, that when a wood has been grubbed up, the rude uncultivated land where it stood appears in full beauty after it has been ploughed. Nam jejuna quidem, &c.] Vix humiles apibus casias, roremque ministrat : Illa ferax oleo est: illam experiere colendo, Here he begins to speak of Rorem.] Dryden takes rorem to mean dew; but it is more probable that Virgil means the rosemary, or ros marinus, so called, because it was used in sprinkling, as we read in the scriptures of hyssop, and grew in places near the sea coast. The prose authors generally write the name of this plant in one word, rosmarinus or rosmarinum: but the poets commonly divide it. Tophus scaber.] I take this to be what we call rottenstone. Quæ tenuem exhalat nebulam, - &c.] The soil, which the poet here describes in the last place, we are told is fit for all the be 215 220 225 fore-mentioned purposes: for vines, olives, cattle, and corn. Capua.] The capital city of Campania. Vacuis Clanius non æquus Acerris.] Acerræ is the name of a very ancient city of Campania, which was almost depopulated by the frequent inunda... tions of the river Clanius. Nunc, quo quamque modo, &c.] The poet having, in the preceding paragraph, informed us of the benefits and disadvantages of the several sorts of soil, he now proceeds to instruct us how we may be able to distinguish each of them. Rara densa.] Densa signifies such a soil as will not easily admit the rain, is easily cracked, and apt to gape, and so let in the sun to the roots of the vines, and in a manner to |