LEMON. 



217 



mellow, and some to blossom. Many have tried to 

 transplant the trees into their own country ; and for this 

 purpose they have had pots made, and enclosed them 

 well with earth ; but for all the care and pains taken 

 about them, to make these trees grow in other countries, 

 yet would they not forget Media and Persia, and, liking 

 no other soil, would soon die." 



Virgil, in his Second Georgic, has elegantly described 

 this fruit, and its supposed medical powers against spells 

 and poison. 



Media fert tristes succos tardumque saporem 

 Felicis mali : quo non pnesentius ullum 

 (Pocula si quando saevae infecere novercaa 

 Miscueruntque herbas, et non innoxia verba) 

 Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena. 

 Ipsa ingens arbos, faciemque simillima lauro : 

 Et si non alium late jactaret odorem, 

 Laurus erat : folia baud ullis labentia ventis : 

 Flos apprime tenax : animas et olentia Medi 

 Ora fovent illo, et senibus medicantur anhelis. 



" Sharp-tasted citron Median climes produce, 

 Bitter the rind, but gen'rous is the juice ; 

 A cordial fruit, a present antidote 

 Against the direful stepdame's deadly draught, 

 Who, mixing wicked weeds with words impure, 

 The fate of envied orphans would procure. 

 Large is the plant, and like a laurel grows, 

 And, did it not a diff'rent scent disclose, 

 A laurel 'twere : the fragrant flow'rs contemn 

 The stormy winds, tenacious of their stem ; 

 With this, the Medes to lab'ring age bequeath 

 New lungs, and cure the sourness of the breath." 



Dry den. 



Apicius, the celebrated Roman epicure, is said to have 

 been the first that used lemons in food : he wrote a book 



