dff Prof. Schow on the supposed changes in the 



the beech, for he describes it like a fir-tree with a thorn on the 

 end of the leaves, and very flat roots; but, according to Sibthorp, 

 the new Greeks call the beech still ojya. Thus it seems most 

 probable that Theophrastus has not known the beech, and 

 has in his description confounded two trees ; which appears still 

 more probable from his mentioning it together with bay and 

 jmyrtle as growing in the plains of Latium. The highest mean 

 temperature in which the beech grows is 9° to 10° C, while the 

 lowest in which the myrtle thrives is 13° to 14° C, except where 

 mild winters are combined with an equally low mean temperature. 

 Much more important is the testimony of Pliny. His Fagus 

 is evidently the beech, but he may have meant mountain 

 plains, and seems to have copied Theophrastus also in this 

 place, and perhaps has confounded the Greek (priyog (Quercus 

 Esculus) with the Latin Fagus. The derivation of the word 

 Fagutal depends entirely upon a report, and cannot serve as a 

 proof. The passages of Virgil are taken from his description 

 of pastoral life, which certainly could only take place in the 

 mountains, since in the lower plains there is not sufficient grass 

 on account of the heat. Myrtle and bay have grown near Rome 

 since the earliest times ; myrtle branches were made use of when 

 the peace was concluded between the Sabines and Romans, and 

 bay crowns were used in the time of the kings. Even if at 

 that time the beech has grown now and then in the plains, for 

 its real place is the mountains, yet the climate could not be 

 much colder than now, since myrtle and bay grow there. 



Of cultivated fruit-trees several are mentioned, such as the 

 olive-tree, the almond-tree, the Punka granatum, among which 

 the olive-tree is the most interesting, its polar limit falling on 

 the boundary of the South European Flora. Strabo says that 

 Gallia Narbonnensis has the same fruits as Italy, but that in 

 going farther north to the Cevennes mountains, the olive-tree 

 and fig-tree disappear. In comparing DecandoUe's map to 

 his Fkyre Fran^aise with this, we find the limit for the olive- 

 tree at the same place. At all events, it proves that the cli- 

 mate has not been colder. That the climate of the south of 

 Europe has not been more warm, is proved by an account 

 which Theophrastus gives about the date-tree in Persia, (Cor- 

 dia Myxa,) which, when brought to Greece, does not bear 



