32 THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS 



Tis a large tree, and like a bays in hue ; 

 And did it not such odours cast about, 

 Twou'd be a bays ; the leaves with no winds fall, 

 The flowers all excel : with these the Medes 

 Perfume their breaths, and cure old pursy men. 



The tree being so like a bays or laurel, the slow or 

 dull taste of the apple, the virtue of it against poison, 

 seem to describe the citron. The perfume of the 

 flowers and virtues of them, to cure ill scents of mouth 

 or breath, or shortness of wind in pursy old men, 

 seem to agree most with the orange : if Jios apprima 

 tenax, mean only the excellence of the flower above 

 all others, it may be intended for the orange : if it 

 signifies the flowers growing most upon the tops of the 

 trees, it may be rather the citron ; for I have been so 

 curious as to bring up a citron from a kernel, which at 

 twelve years of age began to flower ; and I observed 

 all the flowers to grow upon the top branches of the 

 tree, but to be nothing so high or sweet-scented, as 

 the orange. On the other side, I have always heard 

 oranges to pass for a cordial juice, and a great pre- 

 servative against the plague, which is a sort of venom ; 

 so that I know not to which of these we are to 

 ascribe this lovely picture of the happy apple ; but I 

 am satisfied by it, that neither of them was at all 



