The following kinds receive their respective names from their native countries: the Amerinian,[1830] the latest pear of all, the Picentine, the Numantine, the Alexandrian, the Numidian, the Greek, a variety of which is the Tarentine, and the Signine,[1831] by some called “testaceum,” from its colour, like earthenware; a reason which has also given their respective names to the “onychine”[1832] and the “purple” kinds. Then, again, we have the “myrapium,”[1833] the “laureum,” and the “nardinum,”[1834] so called from the odour they emit; the “hordearium,”[1835] from the season at which it comes[1836] in; and the “ampullaceum,”[1837] so called from its long narrow neck. Those, again, that are known as the “Coriolanian”[1838] and the “Bruttian,” owe their names to the places of their origin; added to which we have the cucurbitinum,[1839] and the “acidulum,” so named from the acidity of its juice. It is quite uncertain for what reason their respective names were given to the varieties known as the “barbaricum” and the “Venerium,”[1840] which last is known also as the “coloratum;”[1841] the royal pear[1842] too, which has a remarkably short stalk, and will stand on its end, as also the patricium, and the voconium,[1843] a green oblong kind. In addition to these, Virgil[1844] has made mention of a pear called the “volema,”[1845] a name which he has borrowed from Cato,[1846] who makes mention also of kinds known as the “sementivum”[1847] and the “musteum.”[1848] CHAP. 17.—VARIOUS METHODS OF GRAFTING TREES. EXPIATIONS FOR LIGHTNING. This branch of civilized life has long since been brought to the very highest pitch of perfection, for man has left nothing untried here. Hence it is that we find Virgil[1849] speaking of grafting the nut-tree on the arbutus, the apple on the plane, and the cherry on the elm. Indeed, there is nothing further in this department that can possibly be devised, and it is a long time since any new variety of fruit has been discovered. Religious scruples, too, will not allow of indiscriminate grafting; thus, for instance, it is not permitted to graft upon the thorn, for it is not easy, by any mode of expiation, to avoid the disastrous effects of lightning; and we are told[1850] that as many as are the kinds of trees that have been engrafted on the thorn, so many are the thunderbolts that will be hurled against that spot in a single flash.