"_Arborei foetus alibi_," &c. (Vol. v., p. 58.).--Had the "head master"
been as well versed in the subject as he undoubtedly was in the words of
the _Georgics_, he would have explained to the "sixth form" that, in the
lines
"Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvæ;
Arborei foetus alibi, atque injussa virescunt
Gramina."
the intention of the poet was to contrast an agricultural with a
pastoral district. The _alibi_ which he establishes in the case of
"arborei foetus" he applies equally to "injussa gramina;" and his
obvious meaning is this:--One district is naturally fitted for the
cultivation of corn; another for that of vines; whilst a third is more
adapted for woodland, or rather, perhaps, orchards, meadows, and
pastures: the sowing down or formation of which, if indeed the hand of
man has had anything to do with them at all--being a thing of the past,
and, perhaps, not within the range of the oldest inhabitant's memory,
their produce may with propriety be termed "injussa," or spontaneous.