294 
PLINY S NATURAL HISTOUT. 
[Book XV. 
skin ; the peach has a stone inside. Some among the pears, 
also, known as >^ libralia/^ show, by their name, what a 
remarkable weight they attain. 
(12.) Among the peaches the palm must be awarded to the 
duracinus : the Gallic and the Asiatic peach are distinguished 
respectively by the names of the countries of their origin. 
They ripen at the end of autumn, though some of the early^^ 
kinds are ripe in the summer. It is only within the last thirty 
years that these last have been introduced; originally they 
were sold at the price of a denarius a piece. Those known as 
the supernatia"^^ come from the country of the Sabines, but 
the popularia'' grow everywhere. This is a very harmless 
fruit, and a particular favourite with invalids : some, in fact, 
have sold before this as high as thirty sesterces apiece, a price 
that has never been exceeded by any other fruit. This, too, is 
the more to be wondered at, as there is none that is a worse 
keeper : for, when it is once plucked, the longest time that it 
will keep is a couple of days ; and so sold it must be, fetch 
what it may. 
CHAP. 12. (13). TWELVE EINDS OE PLUMS. 
Xext comes a vast number of varieties of the plum, the 
parti-coloured, the black,^^ the white,^^ the barley^^ plum — 
so called, because it is ripe at barley-harvest — and another of 
the same colour as the last, but which ripens later, and is of a 
larger size, generally known as the asinina,"^^ from the little 
esteem in which it is held. There are the onychina, too, the 
35 Or pound- weight " pears : the Pirus volema of Linnaeus. 
36 Or " hard-berry" — probably in reference to the firmness of the flesh. 
It is generally thought to be the nectarine. 
" Prgecocia." It is generally thought that in this name originates 
the word *' apricot," the Prunus Armeniaca of Linnaeus. There is, how- 
ever, an early peach that ripens by the middle of July, though it is very 
doubtful if it was known to Pliny. 
38 u Yrom above." 
Perhaps the Prunus ungarica of naturalists, the black damask plum ; 
or else the Prunus perdrigona, the perdrigon. 
Probably the Prunus galatensis of naturalists. 
4i u Hordearia :" the Prunus prsecox of naturalists ; probably our 
harvest plum. 
*2 Or "ass" -plum. The Prunus acinaria of naturalists: the cherry 
plum of the French. 
