FERNS, FOSSILS AND FUEL 
though the plant grows best in the Mediterranean coun¬ 
tries of Europe and Asia. The Norse discoverers of 
America called the new country Vinland, because of the 
abundance of wild grapes that they found growing there. 
Fig (Ficus carica ) : Judging from the presence of fos¬ 
silized fig leaves in the Tertiary formations of western 
Asia and from their absence in the Tertiary of Europe, 
we may conclude that the fig tree originated in Asia and 
spread westward. Throughout antiquity the fig, together 
with the wine grape and the olive, was the best known 
and most highly appreciated plant. It is frequently mem- 
tioned in the Bible. Its real home-land is now the Semitic 
Near East. There it grows best and produces its sweetest 
fruit. It was not known in Greece at the time of the 
Trojan war, but we find it mentioned in the Odyssey . It 
flourishes wild, or nearly so, from Persia to the Canaries, 
on both sides of the Mediterranean. 
Cherry (Prunus cerasus): This luscious fruit has a 
long- history. The wild cherry still is found in Trans¬ 
caucasia, and its sweet variety must have been cultivated 
in the region where stood the ancient city of Cerasus, in 
Asia Minor, whence it took its name. It is said that the 
cherry was introduced into Rome by the gourmet Lucullus, 
Roman Consul in the first century B. C., who destroyed 
the city of Cerasus. From Italy the cultivation of the 
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