Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 159 



caufes was undoubtedly the more confiderable, and 

 to the Ciftercians and Benedictine monafteries, 

 \vhich gradually fprang up over the country, modern 

 England owes moft of her fmaller cultivated plants 

 and fruits. Devonshire yet recognifes the parent 

 of her modern cider orchards in Buckland Mona- 

 chorum, while the pears of Jedburgh are famous 

 in the Border diftridts. Ages before the coming 

 of the Romans, neolithic man on the Continent, 

 according to Profeflbr Heer, cultivated eight 

 cereals, together with peas, poppies, flax, caraway- 

 feeds, apples, pears, and bullaces ; but it is probable 

 that few of thefe latter plants had found their 

 way to Britain until the Roman invafions. Italy 

 herfelf was very hofpitable to the animals and 

 trees of the Eaft, when me fubjugated one by one 

 its different countries ; and as me fwept into her 

 own bofom all their gems and works of art, fo 

 was me forward to accept and fofter animals or 

 vegetables which were likely to minifter to her 

 profit or convenience. Virgil ("Georg.," ii. 

 64-71) enumerates a few of the latter, Paphian 

 myrtles, the huge am, the poplar for making 

 garlands in honour of Hercules ; the Grecian oaks, 

 pines, hazels, planes, horfe-cheftnuts, mountain- 

 ames, pears, and cherries even palms, though 

 thefe would not bear fruit in Italy, and were ufeful 

 only for their leaves. In fhort, Italy was a nurfery 

 in which the plants and fruits of the world were 

 domefticated. 1 Nothing was more natural than 



1 Columella, iii. 9, 5, " His tamen exemplis nimirum ad- 

 rnonemur cunc mortalium obfequentiflimam effe Italiam, quae 



