THE MALADIES OF GARDEN PLANTS

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Morbos hortensia quoque sentiunt sicut reliqua terra sata. namque et ocimum senectute degenerat in serpyllum, et sisymbrium in zmintham, et ex semine brassicae vetere rapa fiunt, atque invicem. et necatur cuminum αἱμοδώρῳ, nisi repurgetur; est autem unicaule, radice bulbo simili, non nisi in gracili solo nascens. alius privatim cumini morbus scabies. et ocimum sub canis ortu pallescit. omnia vero accessu mulieris menstrualis flavescunt. bestiolarum quoque genera innascuntur, napis pulices, raphano urucae et vermiculi, item lactucis et oleri, utrisque hoc amplius limaces et cocleae, porro vero privata animalia, quae facillime stercore iniecto capiuntur condentia in id se. ferro quoque non expedire tangi rutam, cunilam, mentam, ocimum auctor est Sabinus Tiro in libro κηπουρικῶν, quem Maecenati dicavit.

Idem contra formicas, non minimum hortorum exitium, si non sint rigui, remedium monstravit limum marinum aut cinerem obturandis earum foraminibus. sed efficacissime heliotropio herba necantur. quidam et aquam diluto latere crudo inimicam his putant. naporum medicina ervi aliquid una seri, sicut olerum cicer; arcet enim urucas. quo si omisso enatae sint, remedio est absinthi sucus decocti inspersus vel sedi; genus hoc herbae, quam aliiἀείζωον vocant, diximus. semen olerum si suco eius madefactum seratur, olera nulli animalium obnoxia futura tradunt; in totum vero necari urucas, si palo inponantur in hortis ossa capitis ex equino genere, feminae dumtaxat. adversus urucas et cancrum fluviatilem in medio horto suspensum auxiliari narrant. sunt qui sanguineis virgis tangant ea, quae nolint iis obnoxia esse. infestant et culices riguos hortos, praecipue si sint arbusculae aliquae. hi galbano accenso fugantur.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

The garden plants, too, like the rest of the vegetable productions, are subject to certain maladies. Thus, for instance, ocimum, when old, degenerates into wild thyme, and sisymbrium 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,, 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: 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 upon her.

There are various kinds of insects, 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,” which he dedicated to Mæcenas, that it is not advisable to touch rue, cunila, mint, or ocimum with any implement of iron.

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; 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, or else of house-leek, 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 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 such plants as they wish to preserve from caterpillars. Flies, 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.