153 



List of Fruits cultivated by the Romans. 



Almonds. Both Sweet and Bitter, were abundant. 



Apples. Twenty-two sorts at least: sweet apples {meli- 

 mala) for eating, and others for cookery. They 

 had one sort without kernels. 



Apricots. Pliny says of the apricot (Armeniaca) quae sola et 

 odore commendantur, lib. xv. sect. 1 1 . He arranges 

 them among his plums. Martial valued them 

 little, as appears by his epigram, xiii. 46. 



Cherries. Were introduced into Rome in the year of the city 

 680, 73 A. C. and were carried thence to Britain 

 120 years after, A. D. 48. The Romans had 

 eight kinds, a red one, a black one, a kind so 

 tender as scarce to bear any carriage, a hard 

 fleshed one (Duracina) like our Bigarreau, a 

 small one with a bitterish flavor (Laurea) like 

 our little wild black, also a dwarf one not ex- 

 ceeding three feet high. 



Chestnuts. They had six sorts, some more easily separated 

 from the skin than others, and one with a red 

 skin ; they roasted them as we do. 



Figs. They had many sorts, black and white, large and 

 small, one as large as a pear, another no larger 

 than an olive. 



Medlars. They had two kinds, the one larger, and the other 

 smaller. 



Mulberries. They had two kinds of the black sort, a larger 

 and a smaller. Pliny speaks also of a Mulberry 

 growing on a brier : Nascuntur et in Rubis, I. xv. 

 sect. 27, but whether this means the Raspberry, 

 or the common Blackberry does not appear. 



