The Quince. '43 



an exceedingly early period may be considered certain. 

 There is good ground for belief that the ancient Hebrews 

 were acquainted with it, and with the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans it was very plainly a favourite. Cultivated 

 extensively near Cydon, one of the chief cities of ancient 

 Crete, it was natural that the Greeks, who first saw it in 

 that island, should call it the Cydonian melon melon, 

 in the Greek language, denoting any large, round, succu- 

 lent fruit not produced in clusters like grapes. Homer, 

 indeed, applies the name to fruit in general. (Iliad, Ix. 

 538.) Used by itself, melon probably denoted the apple 

 ipsissima, but there can be no doubt that it was essen- 

 tially a generic or collective term for all fruits of the kind 

 indicated. The congenerate Latin malum possessed pre- 

 cisely the same broad significance.* Hence we find the 

 fruit before us bearing with the Romans the name of 

 Malum Cotoneum Cotoneum being the same as " Cydo- 

 nian," the spelling varied in conformity with Latin usage. 

 This in itself is of no great moment, but the circumstance 

 acquires great interest from its showing the origin of the 

 modern English word. In Italian, when that language 

 was forming, the Latin name became codogno or cotogna. 

 Subsequently, in French this was shortened to coigne. 

 Chaucer spells it coine or coin, and at last we get quince, 

 which is in reality the plural of the word, mistaken for 

 the name in its singular form. That the quince should 



* Melon is the word used in the Septuagint as the Greek represen- 

 tative of the Hebrew tappilach, Wiclif following suit in the English 

 version, as the Vulgate had done with their malum. 



