Orange-blossoms. 
77 
For those which Hercules, with conquest bold, 
Got from great Atlas’ daughters, hence began, 
And planted there, did bring forth fruit of gold, 
And those with which th’ Euboean young man wan [won] 
Swift Atalanta, when, through craft, he her outran. 
“ Here also sprang that goodly golden fruit 
With which Acontius got his lover true, 
Whom he had long time sought with fruitless suit; 
Here eke that famous golden apple grew, 
The which among the gods false At6 threw. 
For which th’ Idsean ladies disagreed, 
Till partial Paris deem’d it Venus’ due, 
And had [of her] fair Helen for his meed, 
That many noble Greeks and Trojans made to bleed.” 
The latter epicist, in the fourth book of “Paradise Lost," 
introduces the orange-tree into his fabled groves as one 
“Whose fruit, burnished with golden rind, 
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, 
If true, here only, and of delicious taste.” 
Those who know not, and would know, all the various legends 
alluded to in these lines, should at once resort to the pages of 
their “ Lempriere,” or, if desirous of a fuller story, to the 
“ Metamorphoses ” of old Ovid. This fruit was doubtless the 
golden apple presented by Jove to Juno on the day of their 
nuptials, so ancient is its connection with bridal ceremonies. 
According to the poets and mythologists, these precious 
apples only grew in the gardens of the Hesperides, where they 
were preserved from all intruders by a guard of never-sleeping 
dragons. It was one of the twelve labours of Hercules to 
obtain some of them. These, again, were the golden apples 
given by Venus to the venturesome Hippomenes, by means of 
which he won Atalanta. Probably Spenser’s opinion was just, 
and this was the fruit whose bestowal upon Venus gave origin 
to the Trojan war, as it was also the instrument by which the 
crafty Acontius obtained his spouse. What numberless legends, 
poems, and fables are indeed associated with its bright, auri¬ 
ferous hue, its glossy leaves, and its exquisitely perfumed 
flowers ! What dreams of future happiness, what memories of 
bygone bliss, are connected with its symbolic blossoms! How 
gratefully should the man who first introduced the orange-tree 
into Europe be remembered, and what honours does his me¬ 
mory deserve! But, alas! what uncertainty obscures the never- 
