APRICOT.--ARMENIACA; 



Or, PRJECOCIA MALA. 



In Botany, of the Class Icosandria Monogynia. 



THE apricot has long been considered, and 

 in most botanical works stated, to be a na- 

 tive of Epirus ; and the name of pruneus 

 Armeniaca having been given to it in mis- 

 take, and which I shall shew belonged to 

 another fruit, it has been transmitted down 

 from one author to another, without particular 

 inquiry. Theophrastus, one of the oldest 

 authors, never mentions the apricot- tree as 

 being cultivated in Greece, at the time when 

 he lived : on the contrary, he alludes to it as 

 an exotic, from an account transmitted to 

 him : he also mentions the almond, as being 

 the only tree in his country which produced 

 the flowers before the leaves. (Theoph. Hist. 

 Plant, lib. vii. c. 12.) 



