¥ 



J52 OK THE FORCING HOUSES OF THE ROMANS. 



six kindy, some were called libialia: we have our pound 

 pear. 



Plums — They had a multiplicity of sorts, (ingens turba 

 prunorum) biack, white, and variegated, one sort was 

 called asinina, from its chtapuesfe, atiotker damascena, thit 

 had uiach stone and little flesh : from MartiaVs Epigram^ 

 xiii, 29, we may coDclside, that it was what we now call 

 ♦. prtines. 



Quinces They had three sorts, one was called chryso« 



mela from its yellow flesh ; they boiled them with honey, 

 as we make marmalade. See Martial, xiii. 24. 

 ^ Services. — They had the apple shaped, the pear-shaped, 



and a small kind, probably the same as we gather wild, pos- 

 sibly the bjsarole. 



Strawberrin — they had, but do not appear to have 

 prized, the cliniate is too warm to produce this fruit in pei- 

 feciiou unless in the hills. 



V'ities. — They hud a iiiultiplicity of these, both thick 

 sltinned (duraciua) aqd thin skinned : one vine growing at 

 Rome produced 12 amplioiee of juice, 84 gallons. They 

 had round berried, and long berried sprts, one so long, that 

 It was called dactylides, the grajjes being like the fingers on 

 the hand. Martial speaks I'uvourably of the hard skinned 

 grape for eating, xiii, Q.9., 



Walnuts. — They had soft shelled, and hard shelled, as we 



have: in the golden age, when men lived upon acorns, the 



gods lived upon walnuts, hence the name juglans, Jovis 



glans. 



Fruit cuiti- 4*^ matter qf curiosity, it has also been deemed expe- 



]ll^mrfv'^' dieiit, to add a list of the fruits cultivated in our English 



16ih ceimiry. gardens, in the year 1573 : it is taken from a book entitled 



Five Hundied Points of good Husbandry, &c., by Thonfias 



Tusser. 



Thomas Tus- Thomas Tusser, who had received a liberal education at 



**'• Eton school, and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, lived many 



years as a farmer in Suffolk and Norlolk: he afterward 



removed to London, where he published the fii-st edition of 



his work under the title of One Hundred Points of good 



Husbandry, in 1557. 



In his fouvth edition, from which this list js taken, he 



first 



