PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 213 



the terrO-mdre of Italy, but Heer has described and 

 given illustrations of some whicb were found in the lake- 

 dwellings of Robenhausen.^ The species does not seem 

 to be now indigenous in this part of Switzerland, but we 

 must not forget that, as we saw in' the history of flax, the 

 lake-dwellers of the canton of Zurich, in the age of stone, 

 had communications with Italy. These ancient Swiss 

 were not hard to please in the matter of food, for they 

 also gathered the berries of the blackthorn, which are, as 

 we thiiak, uneatable. It is probable that they ate them 

 cooked. 



Apricot — Prunua armenia.ca, Linnseua; Afminica 

 vidgaris, Lamarck. 



The Greeks and Eomans received the apricot about 

 the beginning of the Christian era. Unknown in the 

 time '^ TheOphrastus,' Dioscorides^ mentions it under 

 the name 6i inailon armeniacon. He ' says that the 

 Latins called it praikokion. It is, in fact, one of the 

 fruits mentioned briefly by Pliny,* under the name of 

 prcecociv/m, so called froin the precocity of the species.* 

 Its Armenian origin is indicated by the Greek xiame, 

 but this name might mean only that' the species was 

 cultivated in Armenia. Modern botanists have long had 

 good reason to believe that the species is wild in that 

 country. Pallas,- Giildenstadt, and Hoheflacker say they 

 found it in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus Mountains, 

 on the north, on the banks of the Terek, and to the south 

 between the Caspian and Black Seas.^ Boissier® admits 

 all these localities, but without saying anything about 

 the wild character of the species. He saw a specimen 

 gathei'ed by Hohenacker, near JElisabethpoL On the 



' 'Eeev, Fflanzen der PfahUfauten, p.'27, fig. 16, b. 



• Dioscorides, lib. 1, c. 165. ? Pliny, lib. 2, cap. 12. 



• The Latin name ha$ 'passed in to, modem Greek (jprikdkkid). The 

 Spanish and French names, etc. (alhcmcoqUe, abricoH), seem to be derived 

 from arbor prcecox, or prtecociwui while the old. French word armegne, 

 and Jihe Italian arm0nilli, etc.. Come from mailpn armeniacon. See further 

 details about the names of the speoies in my Qioyra/pMe Bttunijue 

 Baisonmde, p. 880. 



• Ledebour, Fl. Ross., ii. p. 3 



• Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 652. 



