158 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



attested by numerous early Koman writers, and continued to the 

 present day. Tlie discovery of the cultivation of fruits was 

 attributed by the Romans to Janus, their amelioration and exten- 

 sion to Vertumnus and Pomona, all three of them Etruscan 

 divinities ; and the origin of the multiplication of garden varieties 

 is therefore lost in the fabulous ages. Pliny, and other even 

 earlier geoponical writers, give indications of no small number of 

 varieties of pears, apples, cherries, plums, &c., of wliich it is 

 probable that several have descended to us, but from the mere 

 names handed down without descriptions, it is hopeless to attempt 

 to identify any considerable proportion of them ; moreover it is 

 very certain that entirely new varieties are daily introduced, 

 whilst several of the old ones are as undoubtedly lost. 



The flourishing times of the Florentine republic were 

 peculiarly favourable to the development of horticulture and 

 agriculture. The unquiet life which the nobles and great families 

 led within the town, exposed as they were to the suspicions of a 

 turbulent populace, induced them to retire for security to their 

 estates, occupying themselves with their improvement, whilst the 

 rich merchants and magistrates spent their holidays in their 

 suburban villas, which they adorned with gardens, importing plants 

 from all countries, and especially introducing new fruits from 

 Greece. A manuscript piece of poetry in the Magliabecchian 

 library, entitled " Verses (Capitolo) on the table of fruits to be 

 offered to a guest," shows the great variety cultivated in the 

 neighbourhood of Florence in the fifteenth century. Three 

 baskets are there represented; the one full of grapes, figs, 

 pears, apples, lemons, &c. ; the second with cherries, plums, 

 peaches, apricots, and other stone fruits ; the third with almonds, 

 walnuts, oranges, citrons, chesnuts, and several inferior fruits ; 

 thus supplying a list of those most generally known at that period. 

 The Grand Dukes of the Medici family paid particular attention 

 to the enrichment of their gardens. Father Agostino del Piiccio 

 informs us that Cosmo I. was the first to introduce plantations of 

 dwarf fruit-trees, and that he and his successors annually 

 increased the number of varieties introduced and cultivated for 

 their tables. 



The Pear (Pyrus communis) and Api^le (Pyrus malus) are 

 found in their wild state in the mountain woods of all Italy, as 

 well as of the greater part of Europe, and from these indigenous 

 species have been raised the whole of our orchard and garden 

 varieties. Their amelioration by cultivation, and the perpetu- 



