292 
pliny's jtatueal histoet. 
[Book XV. 
browsed when it was first budding/"^ is sure to be barren. 
Thus much in reference to the olive and the oils. 
CHAP. 9. (9.) — THE YAEIOrS KINDS OP PEUIT-TKEES AND THEIE 
NATUEES. POUE YAEIETIES OP PINE-NUTS. 
The other fruits found on trees can hardly be enumerated, 
from their diversity in shape and figure, without reference to 
their different flavours and juices, which have again been 
modified by repeated combinations and graftings. 
(10.) The largest fruit, and, indeed, the one that hangs at 
the greatest height, is the pine-nut. It contains within a 
number of small kernels, enclosed in arched beds, and covered 
with a coat of their own of rusty iron-colour ; Nature thus mani- 
festing a marvellous degree of care in providing its seeds with 
a soft receptacle. Another variety of this nut is the teren- 
tina,^^ the shell of which may be broken with the fingers ; and 
hence it becomes a prey to the birds while still on the tree. A 
third, again, is known as the sappinia,^^" being the produce 
of the cultivated pitch- tree : the kernels are enclosed in a 
skin more than a shell, which is so remarkably soft that it is 
eaten together with the fruit. A fourth variety is that known 
as the pityis ; " it is the produce of the pinaster, and is 
remarkable as a good specific for coughs. The kernels are 
sometimes boiled in honey among the Tauriui, who then call 
them aquiceli." The conquerors at the Isthmian games are 
crowned with a wreath of pine-leaves. 
CHAP. 10. (11.) THE QUINCE. POUE KINDS OP CYDONIA, AND 
POUE VAKIETIES OP THE STEUTHEA. 
i^ext in size after these are the fruit called by us co- 
tonea,"^- by the Greeks Cydonia,'' and first introduced 
^"^ If she happens to have destroyed the buds, but not otherwise. 
The Pinus cembro, probably, of Linnaeus. 
^9 See B. xvi. c. 23. The nuts of the pine are sweet,, and have an 
agreeable flavour. 
2^ Probably the wild pine, the Pinus silvestris of the moderns. The 
nuts are slightly resinous. 
Neither the people of Turin nor of any other place are known at the 
present day to make this preparation. 
22 The quince, the Pirus Cydonia of Linnaeus. 
23 From Cydonia, a city of Crete. The Latin name is only a corruption 
of the Greek one : in England they were formerly called melicotones." 
