iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 133 



which allowed species, whose habit it was not to 

 die down, to survive the winter, and thus to be- 

 come perpetuated. 



It will be perceived, that I have not deemed it 

 necessary for my purpose to set down in every in- 

 stance the several species belonging to each genus, 

 as it would be hopeless to discover an ancient name 

 appropriate to every one, so that where, in the list 

 at the end of the volume, a Greek or Latin name 

 is merely placed opposite to that of the genus, it is 

 implied that the whole genus may put in a claim 

 to the synonyme. 



But although from my enumeration of the trees 

 and shrubs now cultivated in Italy such as are 

 exotic have been excluded, I do not adopt the same 

 rule with regard to those named by the writers 

 of antiquity, believing that there is often reason to 

 doubt the authenticity of the statements given by 

 Pliny and others as to the fact of their introduction 

 from other regions. 



Without, indeed, questioning that the fruit-trees 

 known to the ancients had an Eastern origin, and 

 even that some ornamental plants cultivated in 

 their gardens and pleasure-grounds may have been 

 derived from other countries, I am inclined to be- 

 lieve, with the younger Decandolle, that wherever 

 a particular kind of tree has established itself over 

 a wide extent of country so as to constitute a forest, 

 it ought, unless the contrary be proved, to be re- 

 garded as natural to the soil. 



Now this seems to hold good with the Chesnut 



