Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 7, 10, 11. Aristoph. Plut. 283, et schol. Eq. 675. 494. Vesp. 680. Acharn. 166, 500. Plut. 283. Footnote 1470: Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 246. 252. ----- The cultivation of that species of leek called gethyllis was carried to great perfection at Delphi,[1471] where it was an established custom, evidently with a view to the improvement of gardening, that the person who, on the day of the Theoxenia,[1472] presented the largest vegetable of this kind to Leto should receive a portion from the holy table.[1473] Polemo, who relates this circumstance says, that he had seen on these occasions leeks nearly as large as turnips. The cause of this ceremony was said to be, that Leto when great with Apollo longed for a leek. ----- Footnote 1471: Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 675. Footnote 1472: This passage has escaped the diligence of Meursius, Græc. Feriat. p. 150. Footnote 1473: Athen. ix. 13. ----- Mushrooms[1474] were sedulously cultivated by the ancients, among whose methods of producing them were the following. They felled a poplar-tree[1475] and laying its trunk in the earth to rot, watered it assiduously, after which mushrooms, at the proper time sprung up. Another method was to irrigate the trunk of the fig-tree after having covered it all round with dung, though the best kind in the opinion of others were such as grew at the foot of elm and pine-trees.[1476] Those springing from the upper roots were reckoned of no value. ----- Footnote 1474: Dioscor. ii. 200, seq. Plin. xix. 11. Footnote 1475: Athen. ii. 57. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 189, 191. Eccles. 1092. Geop. xii. 36. Footnote 1476: A similar observation is made in France respecting the truffles, the best of which are supposed to grow about the roots and under the shadow of the oak. Trollope’s Summer in Western France, ii. 352. ----- On other occasions[1477] they chose a light sandy soil accustomed to produce reeds, then burning brushwood, &c., when the air was in a state indicating rain, this ambiguous species of vegetable started forth from the earth with the first shower. The same effect was produced by watering the ground thus prepared, though this species was supposed to be inferior. In France, the most delicate sort of mushrooms are said to proceed from the decayed root of the Eryngium. ----- Footnote 1477: Geop. xii. 41. 2. -----