Appendix.] 



Apricot Tree grows wild. 



25 



Pliny, the successor of Columella, gives it the same name, 

 classing it among the species of Plum ; and he says, that its blos- 

 soms immediately succeed those of the Almond. Many persons 

 think that both Pliny and other writers have spoken of the 

 Apricot tree under the title of Prcecox ; but this tree was most 

 probably some variety of early Plum, being employed chiefly as 

 a stock for grafting others upon, more especially the Peach tree. 



Palladius has regarded these two trees as distinct, saying, 

 " sed Pruno Armenia inseremus et Proecoqua." It may appear 

 to some from another passage of this author's (C Armenia vel Pw- 

 coqua in prunis inseruntur," that he regarded them as one and 

 the same tree, but I differ from them, and consider the word vel 

 as synonymous with et. 



In the compilation of Geoponic writers, I find a paragraph of 

 great importance relative to the subject ; it is an extract from the 

 writings of a writer called Democritus, of whom no positive 

 information remains ; but he could not be the celebrated philo- 

 sopher of that name, though he also wrote several books on agri- 

 culture, which are lost : for, if the extract was written by him, 

 the Apricot tree must have been long known in Greece when 

 Theophrastus wrote, a fact which I have already shewn to be 

 improbable. Neither does any thing in the paragraph favour such 

 an opinion ; but without being able to fix positively when this 

 Democritus did live, it was evidently later. In this paragraph 

 he complains of the innovations which were affected to be made 

 in his time in the names of fruits, and he quotes the Apricot as 

 one of them : this fruit, says he, hitherto known by the name of 

 Berikokka, they wish to call Armeniaca* He gives no reason why 

 this innovation was attempted, so that his information is in some 

 degree incomplete ; but it is quite certain, that the Apricot tree 

 had been already introduced into countries where the Greek lan- 

 guage was spoken, by the name of Berikokka, before that of 

 Armeniaca was substituted. It appears likewise that its old name 

 vol. in. * F 



