Wittmack — Our Present Knowledge of Ancient Plants. 9 
and the bitter and the sweet oranges. Schouw concludes, in 
the words of Goethe: ‘‘ Italy was at that time not yet the 
land where the lemons blossom and in the dark groves the 
golden oranges glow.’’ (‘‘ Das Land, wo die Citronen bliihn, 
im dunklen Laub die Goldorangen gliihn.’’) 
We cannot imagine Italy without these trees, nor without 
corn, tomatoes, agaves and Indian figs (Opuntia), the two 
latter now forming the hedges along the railroads. All these 
plants were introduced recently, relatively speaking. The 
Cédrat ( Citrus medica) perhaps 300 A. D., but according to 
Victor Helm some hundred years earlier. Pliny, who lived 
about the year 79 A. D., says that they had in vain tried to 
introduce the Median apple, which is probably this Citrus 
medica. The lemons and the bitter oranges were introduced 
probably by the Moors in the middle ages and the sweet 
oranges by the Portuguese after they had discovered China 
(about the year 1550). Therefore the sweet oranges are 
sometimes called in Naples ‘‘ Portogalli,’’ and in Germany 
‘¢ Apfelsinen’’’ which means Chinese apples. The corn, the 
tomatoes, agaves, and Indian figs were introduced from 
America. 
But you will ask: ‘*‘ What about the golden apples of the 
Hesperides?’’ Victor Helm in his famous book ‘ Kultur- 
pflanzen und Haustiere ’’ says that their existence is but a fable. 
I hesitate to voice a conclusion so decisive. They may have 
been simply real yellow apples or perhaps yellow quinces, as 
one variety of the quince was called golden quince by the 
Ancients, who made no strong differentiation between quinces 
and apples. 
After Schouw nearly thirty years elapsed until a new 
essay on the plants of Pompeii appeared. This was a scien- 
tific treatise on the plants of the wall-paintings by Prof. 
Comes, who is still Professor of Botany at the Agricultural 
High School at Portici, near Naples, and the best connoisseur 
of the varieties of the tobacco-plant. It is published in the 
great work issued in commemoration of the 1800th anniver- 
sary of the destruction of Pompeii, entitled ‘‘ Pompeii e la re- 
gione sotterrata del Vesuvio nell anno LX XIX,’’ Napoli, 1879. 
