XLVIII. A corn plant consists of a culm bearing at its head a spike, which, when it is not mutilated, has, as in barley and wheat, three parts, namely: the grain, the glume and the beard, not to speak of the sheath which contains the spike while it is being formed. The grain is that solid interior part of the spike, the glume is its hull and the beard those long thin needles which grow out of the glume. Thus as the glume is the pontifical robe of the grain, the beard is its apex. The beard and the grain are well known to almost every one, but the glume to very few: indeed I know only one book in which it is mentioned, the translation which Ennius made of the verses of Evhemerus. The etymology of the word _gluma_ seems to be from _glubere_, to strip, because the grain must be stripped from this hull: and by a like derivation the hull of the fig which we eat is called a glume. The beard we call _arista_ because it is the first part of the corn to dry (_arescere_), while we call the grain _granum_ from the fact that it is produced (_gerere_), for we plant corn to produce grain, not glumes or beards, just as vines are planted to produce grapes, not tendrils. The spike, which, by tradition, the country people call _speca_, seems to get its name from _spes_, hope. For men plant with hope of the harvest. A spike which has no beard is called polled (_muticus_), for, when the spike is first forming, the beard, like the horns of a young animal, is not apparent but lies hid like a sword in its scabbard under a wrapping of foliage which hence is called the sheath. When the spike is mature its taper end above the grain is called the _frit_, while that below, where the spike joins the straw culm, is called the _urruncum_. XLIX. When Stolo drew breath, no one asked any questions, and so, believing that enough had been said on the subject of the care of the growing crops, he resumed. 4° HARVEST TIME "I will now speak about the gathering of the crops." _Of the hay harvest_ And first of the meadows: when the grass ceases to grow and begins to dry out with the heat, then it should be cut with scythes and, as it begins to cure, turned with forks. When it is cured it should be tied in bales and hauled into the steading; then what hay was left lying should be raked together and stacked, and, finally, when this has all been done, the meadow should be gleaned, that is, gone over with the sickle to save what ever grass escaped the mowing, such as that left standing on tussocks. From this act of cutting (_sectare_) I think that the word _sicilire_ (to glean with a sickle) is derived. _Of the wheat harvest_