188 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



" pies came to her from Egypt and Greece ; apricots 

 " from Epirus ; the pear from Alexandria, Numidia, and 

 " Greece ; the lemon and orange from Medea, Affy- 

 <c ria, and Perfia; the fig from Afia ; the pomegranate 

 " from Carthage ; the chefnut from Catania in Magne- 

 " fia, a province of Macedonia ; almonds from Afia to 

 u Greece, and thence to Italy ; the walnut from Perfia ; 

 " filberts from Ponto ; olives from Cyprus ; plums from 

 " Armenia ; the peach from Perfia ; quinces from Ci- 

 " donia in Candia to Greece, and thence to Italy." 



Pliny fays, that men at firft fed upon nothing but 

 acorns (o). This, though falfe with refpect ro men in 

 general, appears to be true with refpecl to the firft peo- 

 plers of Italy, at leaf! fuch was the opinion of the an- 

 cients, as their writings {hew. Pliny adds, that even 

 in his time many people, from the want of grain, were 

 efteemed rich in proportion to the quantity of acorns 

 which they had, of the flour of which they made bread, 

 as they do at prefent in Norway of the bark of the pine, 

 and in other northern countries of bones of fifties ; 

 which is no fmail indication of their mifery. Bomare 

 declares that all the beauties of European gardens are 

 foreign ( and that the mod beautiful flowers they 

 have come from the Eaft (q). Mr. de Paw makes a 

 more general confeffion of the ancient mifery of the Eu- 

 ropeans, where he affirms that the ufeful plants which 

 they have at prefent pafled from the fouth of Afia into 

 Egypt, from Egypt to Greece, from Greece into Italy, 

 from Italy into Gaul, and from thence into Germany(r); 

 fo that the foil of Europe, with refpect to native and 



original 



0) Plin. Hift. Nat. lib. ii. 2. cap. 56. 



(p) Bomare Di&ion. Univ. d'Hiftorie Nat. V. Plante. 



(q) Id. V. Fleur. 



(r) Recherch. Philofoph. part i. 



