308 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



destroyed by cultivation ; for it is the privilege of 

 man not only to distinguish between the good and 

 evil properties of vegetables, but to eradicate the evil, 

 in many cases, by his skill and industry. 



The apricot is very widely diffused in Asia, and 

 grows upon the slopes of the barren mountains west- 

 ward of China. Many species of it are cultivated ; 

 and, as they ripen earlier than the peach and necta- 

 rine, they are in considerable estimation. Some va- 

 rieties are exceedingly delicious ; and the Persians, 

 in their figurative language, call the apricot of Iran, 

 " the seed of the sun." 



It should seem that the apricot was known in Italy 

 in the time of Dioscorides 5 and that it got its name 

 precocia from ripening earlier than some other fruits. 

 The modern Greek name ^MVKK is very like the 

 Arabic name benkach. The Romans set little value 

 upon the apricot, as appears by an epigram of 

 Martial. If the ancient name is to be retained, 

 a-precoke, as it used to be styled by our most 

 early writers on horticulture, is the classical appel- 

 lation, and the modern apricot the vulgarism or cor- 

 ruption. 



The apricot is said to derive its scientific name 

 from its almost covering the slopes of the Caucasus, 

 the Ararat, and the other mountains in and about 

 Armenia, up almost to the margin of the snow. 

 The general opinion that it is a native of Armenia 

 has, however, been controverted by M. Regnier, a 

 French naturalist, who contends, that as Armenia is 

 a high mountainous country, the climate of which 

 resembles that of middle Europe, it cannot possibly 

 be the country of a tree which begins to flower so 

 early, that its blossoms are often destroyed by the 

 frost, notwithstanding every care of the cultivator. 

 The apricot, too, although it has been cultivated in 

 Europe for many ages, never sprang up from seeds 



