PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 237 



it is as old as Zend. The same name, aiva, exists in 

 Russian for the cultivated quince, while the name of 

 the wild plant is armiid, from the Armenian arviuda} 

 The Greeks grafted upon a common variety, strution, a 

 superior kind, which came from Cydon, in Crete, whence 

 Kvd(i)viov, translated by the Latin 'malum cotoneum, by 

 cydonia, and all the European names, such as codogno in 

 Italian, coudougner, and later coing in French, quitte in 

 German, etc. There are Polish, pigiua, Slav, tunja,^ and 

 Albanian (Pelasgian ?), ftua,^ names which differ entirely 

 from the others. This variety of names points to an 

 ancient knowledge of the species to the west of its 

 original country, and the Albanian name may even 

 indicate an existence prior to the Hellenes. 



Its antiquity in Greece may also be gathered from 

 the superstition, mentioned by Pliny and Plutarch, that 

 the fruit of the quince was a preservation from evil 

 influences, and from its entrance into the marriage rites 

 prescribed by Solon. Some authors go so far as to main- 

 tain that the apple disputed by Hera, Aphrodite, and 

 Athene was a quince. Those who are interested in 

 such questions will find details in Comes s paper on the 

 plants represented in the frescoes at Pompeii.* The 

 quince tree is figured twice in these, which is not sur- 

 prising, as the tree was known in Cato's time.^ 



It seems to me probable that it was naturalized in 

 the east of Europe before the epoch of the Trojan war. 

 The quince is a fruit which has been little modified by 

 cultivation ; it is as harsh and acid when fresh as in the 

 time of the ancient Greeks. 



Pomegranate — Punica granatum, Linnaeus. 



The pomegranate grows wild in stony ground in 

 Persia, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and Beluchistan.^ 

 Burnes saw groves of it in Mazanderan, to the south of 

 the Caspian Sea."^ It appears equally wild to the south 



* Nemnich, Poly. Lex. * Ibid. ' Heldreioh, Nutz. Griech., p. 64 



* In 4to, Napoli, 1879. * De re Rustica, lib. 7, cap. 2. 



* Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 737 ; Sir J. Hooker, Fl. of Brit Ind,, ii, 

 p. 581. 



' Quoted from Royle, Ulus. Eimal., p. 208. 



