24 



M. Regnier on the Country where the [Appendix. 



vinces. The opinion, therefore, of its having originated in that 

 country rests solely on its name. 



Before I venture to say any thing more relative to the subject, 

 it will be necessary to bring into one point whatever lights ancient 

 writers afford us. 



Theophrastus, the oldest author after Aristotle, whose 

 writings have been preserved, never mentions the Apricot tree as 

 being cultivated in Greece, at the period when he lived : on the 

 contrary, he alludes to it as an exotic, with only a very short 

 account transmitted to him, and he does not even give it any 

 name. This silence, however, of Theophrastus respecting it, 

 would hardly alone have determined me to conclude, that the 

 Apricot tree was then unknown to the Greeks, if this excellent 

 naturalist had not related to us, that, of all the trees in his country, 

 the Almond was the only one in which the flowers appeared before 

 the leaves.* If the Apricot tree, which has the same character, 

 had been known to Theophrastus, he would surely have men- 

 tioned it ; for the accuracy of all his statements is well known to 

 those who study his writings, unfortunately too much neglected. 



Columella is the oldest Roman witer who mentions the Apricot 

 tree ;-f- but he enters into no detail, confining himself to the 

 observation, that its fruit must be gathered at the same time as 

 the Damascus Plum, and calling it the Armenian Plum. In 

 another place, he says, that at the end of January we may graft 

 Cherry trees, the Armenian Plum,% the Nectarine, the Almond, 

 the Peach tree, and others which push early. Hence it appears, 

 that in the Augustan age, the Apricot tree was known to the 

 Romans by the name of Armenian Plum tree. 



* Theophrasti Hist. Plant, lib. vii. c. 12. 

 f Columella, lib. x. v. 404. 



X Columella, lib. xi. c. 2. In the edition by Gesner, Lipsiae, 1735, the Armenian 

 Plum is omitted. 



