166 HISTOKICAL NOTES ON 



that it was first introduced iuto Italy towards the end of the reign 

 of Tiberius (wlio died a.d. 37) by Lucius Vitellius, afterwards 

 Emperor, and that at about the same time it was carried into Spain 

 by Flavins Pompeius, a Roman knight, companion in arms to 

 Vitellius. AVell known to the ancients, it is supposed by some to 

 be the hatnim of Scripture, and generally believed to be the 

 Indian terebinth indicated by Theophrastus as a native of Bactria. 

 It is mentioned by Nicander and Dioscorides under the names of 

 pistacia, bistacia, and _///; j-s^/cw. In Sicily it is of very ancient 

 cultivation, and there called fustiicha or fastuca. It is now 

 extensively planted in some parts of the Southern and Eastern 

 Mediterranean regions, and miglit be so in Tuscany, where a few 

 trees, scattered here and there, ripen their fruits well. 



Notwithstanding the above-quoted indications of the eastern 

 origin of the pistachio, it remains to be ascertained where it is 

 truly indigenous, and what is its real wild typical form. Botanists 

 give as its native habitat Syria, Persia, East India, Arabia, and 

 Barbary, but in most of those countries it is certainly only known 

 in a cultivated state. We have seen no wild specimens in our 

 largest herbaria, and find no reliable indications of any 

 native stations in local floras. Targioni mentions a variety 

 narbonensis as having become wild in great abundance in the 

 neighbourhood of Montpellier, but during several years' herborisa- 

 tions in that country we never saw any species at all allied to it 

 except the common small-fruited Pistacia terebinthus. The 

 authority of Gasparrini is also quoted for a hybrid between P. vera 

 and P. terebinthus, which, according to Sestini and Boccone, has 

 multiplied itself in various parts of Sicily. If that be the case it 

 would lead to a strong presumption that notwithstanding the great 

 diffei'ence in the size and shape of the fruit, tlie P. vera and the 

 P. terebinthus, and consequently also the P. mutica of the Crimea 

 and Asia Minor, are mere varieties of one botanical species common 

 in the Mediterranean region from Spain to the Black Sea and 

 Asia Minor. 



The Walnut (Juglans regia) is a native of the mountains of 

 Asia, from the Caucasus almost to China. It is supposed to be 

 the Enoz of the Bible. The Greeks had it from Asia; and 

 Nicander, Theophrastus, and others mention it under the names 

 o{ carija, carya j)ersica, -dudi carijd. busilike (or royal nut). Pliny 

 informs us that it was introduced into Italy from Persia, an intro- 

 duction which must have been of early date, for, although it be 

 doubtful whetlierit is alluded to by Cato, it certainly is mentioned 



