2 



in Palestine, tbe citron is, but the apple is not. It 

 is a noble tree, lofty and evergreen, such as the poet 

 might justly take as an emblem of a bridegroom. 

 {Canticles ii. 3.) But not so the apple-tree, which 

 is there of ill-growth and unproductive, or, to use 

 the language of Dr. Russell, an eye-witness, it is 



very bad." {Natural History of Aleppo, 21.) 

 Moreover, the fruit of the citron is juicy, refresh- 

 ing, and fragrant {Card. ii. 5, vii. 8), and of a golden 

 colour, as described in Proverbs xxv. 11. Then, 

 again, the frequency of the citron, and its habit of 

 growth and dense evergreen foliage, render it a more 

 fitting shelter than that afforded by the apple-tree. 

 {Cant. viii. a.) 



The mention made of the apple in the holy writings 

 being so apparently erroneous, we are justified in 

 considering that Homer affords us the first certain 

 notice of the apple ; but he merely mentions it as a 

 tenant, together with other fruit-trees, of the Garden 

 of xilcinous. 



Descending to the time of the Romans, we find the 

 apple, and several varieties of it, noticed by their 

 earliest writers on the culture of the soil. Cato, who 

 wrote more than a century and a half before the 

 Christian era, describes three varieties of the apple ; 

 one of which, the Quirinian, we may conclude derived 

 its name from its first propagator. It would occupy 

 more space than we can permit were we to even 



