BOOK XV. VIII. 34-x. 37 



Accordinff to Marcus Varro an olive-lrec which has RR- 100. 

 been merely hcked by the tongue of a she-goat or 

 which she has nibbled when it was first budding goes 

 barren. 



So far in regard to the oHve and oHve-oil. 



IX. The rest of the fruits produced by trees can otherfruu 

 scarcely be enumerated by their appearance or ""^"' 

 shape, let alone by their flavours and juices, which 



have been so frequently modified by crossing and 

 grafting. 



The largest fruit and the one that hangs highest Pinenutt. 

 is that of pine-cones, which encloses inside it 

 small kernels lying in fretted beds and clothed in 

 another coat of rusty colour, showing the marvellous 

 care that Nature takes to provide seeds with a soft 

 place to Ue in. A second class of pine-cones is that 

 of the Taranto pine, whicli has a shell that can be 

 broken in the fingers and which is rifled by the birds 

 while on the tree. A third kind is that of the 

 sappinia-cone which grows on the cultivated pitch- 

 pine, the kernels ofwhich have such a soft husk, or 

 rather skin, that it is eaten with them. A fourth kind 

 is called pityis, growing on wild pines, which provides 

 an exceptionally good remedy against a cough when 

 the keriiels are boiled in honey ; the people of Turin 

 call them raviceli." The winners in the games at the 

 Isthmus are crowned with a wreath of pine leaves. 



X. The fruit next to these in size is the one that Q^inces. 

 we call the quince and the Greeks cydoneum,^ which 



was introduced from the island of Crete. This fruit 

 drags down the boughs in a curve and checks the 

 growth of the parent tree. There are several kinds 

 of quinces : the ' golden apple ' is cleft with incisions 

 and has a colour verging on gold, a brighter tinge 



voL. Tv. 1 313 



