FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



Tel. Wcel-midi, Oowus, Cey. Kerm (vine), Anub (grape), 

 Umaseen (juice), Meweez, Zebeeb (raisin), Arab. Unyoor, Pers. 

 Booangoor, Malaya. 



Habitat. Persia. Cultivated through the old world from India to 

 the 51 North. 



Remarks. First mentioned hy Moses in the history of Noah. Is the 

 olvoffropos of the Greeks and the Vitis Sativa of Pliny. Homer 

 mentions the vine in his description of the garden of Alcinous, Odys. vii. 

 Close to the gate a spacious garden lies, 

 From storms defended and inclement skies : 

 Four acres was th' allotted space of ground, 

 Fenced with a green enclosure all around. 

 Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould ; 

 The redd'ning apple ripens here to gold, 

 Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows, 

 With deeper red the full pomegranate glows. 

 The branch here bencft beneath the weighty pear, 

 And verdant olives flourish round the year. 

 The balmy spiiit of the western gale 

 Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail : 

 Each dropping pear a following pear supplies, 

 On apples apples, figs on figs arise : 

 The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, 

 The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow. 

 Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear, 

 With all the united labours of the year; 

 Some to unload the fertile branches run, 

 Some dry the black'ning cluster in the sun ; 

 Others to tread the liquid harvest join, 

 The groaning presses foam with floods of wine. 

 Here are the vines in early flower descried, 

 Here grapes discoloured on the sunny side, 

 And here in autumn's richest purple dyed. 

 Beds of all various herbs, for ever green, 

 In beauteous order terminate the scene. 

 Two plenteous fountains, the whole prospect crowned. 



Again Odys. xxiv the scene referred to being Ithaca. 

 Twelve pear trees bowing with their pendant load, 

 And ten, that red, with blushing apples glow'd ; 

 Full fifty purple figs : and many a row 

 Of various vines that then began to blow, 

 A future vintage ! tvhen the hours produce 

 Their latent buds, and Sol exalts the juice! 



Herodotus (Euterpe, ch. 77) says the Egyptians " have no vines in their 

 country." Of N. O. 54, Geraniacese, Geranium parviflorum has a root 

 eaten in Australia ; and Pelargonium triste, tubers eaten at the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



N. O. 56. OXALIDACE^E. OXALIDS. 

 Averrhoa Bilimbi. W. Bilimbi. 



Linn. Syst* Decandria Pentagynia. 



The fruit, used as a fruit, and pickle. 

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