Note 323 — MENSIS APRILIS.
Reading edition
N. H. 18. 14 ‘Ita est in commentariis pontificum: Augurio canario agendo dies constituantur priusquam frumenta vaginis exeant et antequam in vaginas perveniant.’ For ‘et antequam’ we should perhaps read ‘nec antequam.’ The vagina is the sheath which protects the ear and from which it eventually protrudes; and it seems that in this stage, which in Italy would occur at the end of April or beginning of May, the corn is peculiarly liable to ‘rust.’ (So Virg. Georg. 1. 151 ‘Ut mala culmos Esset robigo’: i. e. the stalks including the vagina.) See Hugh Macmillan, op. cit. p. 121.