8 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE APPLE AND PEAR. 
some countries, it may also be added, it has been the custom to place an apple in the hand 
of a child when buried, that it may have it to play with in Paradise. 
It is time however to leave the myths of apple lore, and see what a somewhat more trust¬ 
worthy history has to say about the Apple and Pear. 
The oldest systematic writer on the subject in Latin is the Elder Cato, (b.c. 234-149) who 
in his treatise on Husbandry gives lists of fruits, and directions about grafting, planting, propagating 
and storing them. Pie is often quoted by Pliny. Other writers may be mentioned, as Varro 
(b.c. 116-27) ; Columella (a.d. c. 42) who treats the subject carefully and at some length ; the Greek 
physician and botanist Diascorides of Anazarbus in Cilicia, (a.d. 64) and others of later date : but 
the one who enters most fully into the subject is the Elder Pliny, (a.d. 23-79) who in his wonderful 
Encyclopoedia of knowledge, the Natural Plistory, has given a descriptive list of the different sorts 
of Apples and Pears, taken in great measure from Cato and other writers. This account is so often 
referred to, is so full of quaint humour, and is so thoroughly practical, that the three chapters on 
the Quince, the Apple and the Pear will be here translated in full. 
Pliny, Book XV, Chapter ii. 
“ On the Ouince Apple. 
“Next to these (fir-cones) in size are Quince Apples, which we call Cotonea, and the Greeks Cydonia: they were 
imported from the island of Crete. The branches which they draw from the stem are bent inwards, and hinder its free 
growth. There are many sorts of them, chrysomela (golden apples) strongly marked with grooves, of a colour inclined to 
golden. Those which are lighter in colour are called by names belonging to our own country, and are possessed of a most 
exquisite odour. The Neapolitan sort also are not undeserving of praise. A smaller sort of the same kind called Struthea 
(sparrow-apples) emit a still stronger fragrance as they quiver on the stalk; they are late in appearing, while those which 
are called Musiea (new-wine apples) are very early. The Cotonea grafted on the Struthea produce a special sort called Mulvian , 
the only sort out of those already named which are eaten raw. At the present time all of them are commonly placed in 
men’s reception rooms, upon effigies of deities placed there as guardians of the night season. There are besides woodland 
apples of small size, which are the most highly scented of all next to the Struthea; they grow on hedges. The name mala 
(apples), though the fruits belong to a different race, we give to peaches and pomegranates, of which nine sorts are named, 
growing on trees which came originally from Carthage. The distinguishing feature of the latter is seed beneath the rind, 
that of the former a solid stone in the body of the fruit. There are moreover some of the pear tribe called Libralia (pound- 
pears) from their great weight.” 
Chapter 14. 
“ Of the various sorts of Apples, 29 sorts. 
“ There are many sorts of apples. Of citrons and their parent tree we have already spoken, but to another sort of 
fruit the Greeks give the name Median, from the country of its origin. Equally foreign are the Zizypha (jujubes) and 
Tuberes, both of which have only lately been introduced into Italy, the latter from Africa, the former from Syria. It 
was Sextus Papinius, whom I remember as Consul, who introduced both of them in the latter days of Augustus of divine 
memory. They were planted in fortified places, and are more like berries than apples, but are particularly ornamental to 
raised mounds, seeing that it is the custom now even for the roofs of our houses to be overgrown with wood. There are two 
kinds of inheres, a white one, and one called from its colour Syriacc. There is a sort which may almost be called foreign, 
