i.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 5 



Crusades probably assisted in its dissemination 

 through Europe. 



The Golden Apples of the Hesperides, which 

 some have supposed to be Oranges, seem rather 

 to have been some variety of the Apple tribe. 



No well-authenticated account is given by the 

 prose writers of antiquity of the Citron being used 

 as a fruit, and when Virgil introduces the shepherd 

 Menalcas sending " aurea mala" to Amyntas, the 

 poet could not have intended Oranges, which cer- 

 tainly were not cultivated by rustics at the time 

 he wrote : 



" Quod potui, puero sylvestri ex arbore lecta 

 Aurea mala decem misi, mox altera mittam V 



In alluding to the various kinds of Indian Pepper, 

 Pliny mentions one which is grown in Italy, larger 

 than a Myrtle, and not very unlike it in appearance. 

 Sprengel imagines it to be the Daphne Thymel&a, 

 but this is uncertain. 



The Date Palm is also spoken of by Pliny as 

 having been introduced in his time into Europe, 

 and it is interesting to find that those on the coast 

 of Spain at that period bore fruit, as at present the 

 only place in Europe where ripe Dates are grown 

 is Elche, in Valencia. In Italy they are stated to 

 have been barren, which agrees with our present 

 experience, for in the most favoured climates in 

 Italy, such as the Riviera, north of Genoa, though 

 the Date Palm grows remarkably well, and rises to 

 a great height, it yields no dates. This is the case 

 even with those at Bordighera, on the road to Nice, 



b Second Eclogue. 



