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HISTORY OF THE QUINCE. 15 



The Elder Pliny, with the fond instinct of the true 

 pomologist, eloquently descants upon its valuable prop- 

 erties, and paints the tree as it appeared about Eome, 

 with its branches depending to the ground, jeweled with 

 starry fruit. In fact, " the clever criticisms of this early 

 naturalist soon became lost amid his enchanting pane- 

 gyrics." Different varieties of the quince (more than we 

 possess now), he tells us, were cultivated in profusion 

 throughout Italy, " both for ornamental and useful in- 

 tents." Like the orange and lemon in our Northern States, 

 it appears sometimes to have been grown in boxes, which 

 " were exposed for admiration in the ante-chambers of 

 the great. " He extolled most highly its health-imparting 

 and medicinal virtues, enlivening his classic descriptions 

 with a warmth of enthusiasm which "must inevitably 

 fill the modern admirer of the quince with enduring 

 delight." 



Professor Targioni, an Italian horticulturist, informs 

 us, that at the present time the peasantry in some parts 

 of Southern Europe highly prize the quince for perfuming 

 their stores of linen, and that in the yet warmer lands it 

 is still found as gratifying to the palate as to the nostrils. 

 A recent traveler in Persia, after speaking of its use as 

 a dessert, says it is yearly forwarded as presents to Bag- 

 dad, where the highly perfumed odor is found so power- 

 ful, that if there be but a single quince in a caravan, no 

 one who accompanies it can remain unconscious of its 

 presence. 



The Italian name of the quince, cotona or cotogna,is 

 believed to be the origin of melocoton for a quince, as 

 melocotogno is the Italian for a quince tree. The Spanish 

 melocoton is a peach tree grafted on the quince, or the 

 fruit of this, but membrillo is the Spanish name of the 

 quince, as malum cotoneum is the Latin for a quince- 

 apple. The Portuguese name is marmelo, from which 

 comes our marmalade, a most valuable form of pre- 



