296 plot's natural history. [Book XV. 



may be mentioned, as being the fellow-countryman of tbe 

 Damascene : it has of late been introduced into Rome, and 

 has been grown engrafted upon the sorb. 



CHAP. 13. THE PEACH. 



The name of " Persica," or " Persian apple," given to this 

 fruit, fully proves that it is an exotic in both Greece as well 

 as Asia, 54 and that it was first introduced from Persis. As to 

 the wild plum, it is a well-known fact that it will grow any- 

 where ; and I am, therefore, the more surprised that no men- 

 tion has been made of it by Cato, more particularly as he has 

 pointed out the method of preserving several of the wild 

 fruits as well. As to the peach-tree, it has been only intro- 

 duced of late years, and with considerable difficulty ; so much 

 so, that it is perfectly barren in the Isle of Rhodes, the first 

 resting-place 55 that it found after leaving Egypt. 



It is quite untrue that the peach which grows in Persia is 

 poisonous, and produces dreadful tortures, or that the kings 

 of that country, from motives of revenge, had it transplanted 

 in Egypt, where, through the nature of the soil, it lost all its 

 evil properties— for we find that it is of the " persea" 66 that 

 the more careful writers have stated all this, 57 a totally different 

 tree, the fruit of which resembles the red myxa^and, indeed, 

 cannot be successfully cultivated anywhere but in the East. 

 The learned have also maintained that it was not introduced 

 from Persis into Egypt with the view of inflicting punishment, 

 but say that it was planted at Memphis by Perseus ; for 

 which reason it was that Alexander gave orders that the vic- 

 tors should be crowned with it in tbe games which he insti- 

 tuted there in honour of his 58 ancestor : indeed, this tree has 

 always leaves and fruit upon it, growing immediately upon the 

 others. It must be quite evident to every one that all our 

 plums have been introduced since the time of Cato. 59 



54 I. e. Asia Minor. 55 Hospitiura. 



5G See B. xiii. c. 17. The Balanites iEgyptiaea of Delille. 



57 It was this probably, and not the peach-tree, that would not bear 

 fruit in the isle of Rhodes. 



58 Perseus. ... 



59 Fee remarks that the wild plum, the Prunus silvestris or insitit;a of 

 Linnaeus, was to be found in Italy before the days of Cato. 



