20 DICTIONARY OF POPULAR FAMES APRICOT 



we call apple or other globose fruit ; but as onr apple tree is not 

 a native of Palestine, and therefore unknown in the time of 

 Solomon, and evidently unknown to the translators ; they 

 nevertheless appear to have considered it to be the melon, in 

 Latin rendered mahim, and stands as such in the Vulgate Bible, 

 which the English translators have rendered apple, the fruit of 

 Pyrus ifaZ-ws, which, as already stated, is not a native of Palestine. 

 The question therefore arises, What was the tree that produced 

 the golden, sweet-scented, and delicious fruit spoken of in 

 Proverbs and the Song of Solomon ? Canon Tristram considers 

 it to have been the Apricot (which see). 



Apricot {Prunus Armeniaca), a bushy tree of the Almond 

 family (Drupace£e), a native of Armenia. It early became 

 domesticated in the countries of the Mediterranean; and, 

 according to Turner's Zist of Eeo^ls, it was cultivated in this 

 country in the middle of the sixteenth century. It is more 

 hardy than the peach, and in the neighbourhood of London the 

 fruits come to perfection on standard trees ; but the crop is pre- 

 carious on account of its early flowering. In Syria, Apricots arc^ 

 dried in large quantities and exported to Egypt, under the name 

 of Mishmush. They are also pressed together, and rolled out 

 into thin sheets 2 or 3 feet long, and are called " Moon of the 

 Faithful," the appearance of which a traveller likens to a black- 

 smith's apron. Both the preparations form a considerable article 

 of food, and are very palatable when stewed. The Apricot is 

 abundantly wild in the hilly country of Palestine. Canon 

 Tristram considers the fruit of the Apricot to be the apple, 

 of the English Bible. {See Apple Tree.) In support of this 

 view he says — "The apricot is most abundant in the Holy 

 Land; everywhere it is common in highlands and low- 

 lands alike, by the shores of the Mediterranean and on the 

 banks of the Jordan, in the nooks of Judea, under the heights 

 of Lebanon, in the recesses of Galilee, and in the glades of 

 Gilead, the Apricot flourishes and yields a crop of prodigious 

 abundance; its branches ladened with its golden fruit may well 

 be compared to ' apples of gold,' and its pale leaves to ' pictures 



