62 CYPRUS. 
About half an hour after our arrival, the 
worthy old Armenian came home ; and throwing 
himself at full length upon the divan, began 
to fan his face with a bunch of coloured feathers, 
while his secretary opened and read to him 
our letters. Refreshments were instantly 
served, and pipes brought by his attendants : 
soon after this he proposed that we should 
accompany him to the Governor's. As we 
descended, he shewed to us his beautiful 
garden, filled with standard apricot-trees laden 
with ripe fruit, and our wine, as he said, 
for dinner, already cooling in marble fountains, 
beneath the shade of orange, citron, lemon, 
fig, vine, and pomegranate trees. He had 
one variety of the apricot which bore fruit 
with a smooth shining skin like our common 
nectarine. All these trees, in the gardens of 
Nicotia, equal in size the apple-trees of our 
English orchards, and their branches are sup- 
ported by props to prevent their breaking by 
the load of fruit which covers them. Perhaps it 
was from Cyprus (where this plant appears to be 
indigenous) that the apricot-tree was first carried 
to Italy. Its Oriental appellation. Primus or Malus 
Armeniaca, would assign to it an Eastern origin ; 
but its native land has not yet been determined. 
Pallas found it in a wild state among the Caucasian 
mountains. It was known in Italy in the time 
