Mala was used by the ancients as a generic term, comprehending many species of fruit. See an interesting account of them in Pliny (xxiii, 5); Macrobius (Saturn, iii, 19); and Athenæus (Deipnos. iii), where Diphilus thus states their general characters as articles of food: “Green and unripe apples are unwholesome and unsavoury, swim in the stomach, form bile, and occasion diseases. Of the ripe, such as are sweet are more wholesome and more laxative from having no astringency; the acid are more unwholesome and constipating, but such as have also a certain degree of sweetness become more delicious, and are at the same time stomachic from having some astringency.” The ancients appear to have been well acquainted with the methods of making cider, perry, and the like. See Macrobius (Sat. vii, 6), and Pliny (H. N. xiv, 19.) The Arabian authors in general speak rather unfavorably of apples.
Cornels, or the fruit of the cornus mascula, were in little request as articles of food, and yet Pliny mentions that they were sought after in his time.
The cydonia or quinces were in great repute, not only as articles of food, but as medicines. When unripe they are very astringent and contain much acid, and hence they were used in such cases as those in which the mineral acids are now generally administered. (Pliny, H. N. xxxiii, 6.) They appear to be the “cana mala” of Virgil. Columella and Pliny describe three varieties, namely, the chrysomala, struthea, and mustea. These have not been satisfactorily determined. Some modern commentators have taken “the golden apples” of Theocritus and Virgil for oranges, but it is much more probable that they were a species of quince. No ancient author has noticed the orange.
Pears, according to Simeon Seth, are of a cold and desiccative nature. They are compounded, he says, of astringency, sweetness, and sometimes of acidity; and some have a moderate degree of heating and desiccative properties. Averrhoes gives exactly the same account of them. Of pomegranates, he says, that some are sweet and some are acid; that all of them moisten, but that the sweet are of a more hot and humid nature. Homer enumerates the pomegranate among the fruits which were suspended over the head of Tantalus to tempt his appetite. (Odyss. xi, 588.) We may suppose, therefore, that the poet held it to be a most delicious fruit. Dioscorides says that the sweet pomegranates are stomachic; but that they are prejudicial when there is fever.
Galen, who gives medlars and services much the same characters as our author, recommends them only in very small quantities. Aëtius and Seth say that ripe medlars are somewhat heating, but that the unripe are cold, astringent, and constipating. Actuarius calls them excellent astringent medicines, but bad articles of food. Dioscorides describes two species of medlars, the aronia, and setanium. The first species is called azarollo by the Italians, and the other is the common species of medlar.
See an interesting account of dates, or the fruit of the palm-tree, in the ‘Hierobotanicon’ of Olaus Celsius. The date, according to Galen, is a fruit possessing a variety of characters, but having always a certain degree of sweetness and astringency. He says, it is indigestible and apt to occasion headachs. Simeon Seth says that dates form an impure blood; and Ruffus, as quoted by him, affirms that they prove injurious to the bladder. Serapion, Rhases, and Mesue agree that the date is a cold, astringent fruit. Herodotus, Xenophon, and Athenæus make mention of a wine prepared from dates. Erotian says that a species of bread is made from dates, flour, and water. (Lexicon Hippocratis.)
The olive, as Pliny remarks, consists of four parts, the kernel, the oil, the flesh, and the lees. The drupæ, mentioned by our author, were the olives quite ripe and ready to fall from the tree. The colymbades and halmades were olives pickled with salt, &c. See Harduin (ad Plin. H. N. xv, 3.) The Siphnian Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, says of them that they supply little nourishment, occasion headachs; that the black injure the stomach, and bring on heaviness of the head; and that the pickled prove more stomachic and astringent of the belly, Galen mentions that olives were often eaten with bread before dinner in order to open the belly. Simeon Seth says that ripe olives are moderately hot, but that the unripe are cold, desiccative, and astringent. Serapion, in like manner, says that unripe olives are astringent. Plutarch mentions a pickled olive as a whetter of the appetite. (Sym. vi.) The ancients marked strongly their estimation of the olive when they set it down as being the emblem of peace, and sacred to the Goddess of Wisdom.
The Siphnian Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, states that walnuts occasion headach, and swim on the stomach; but such as are tender and white contain better juices, and are more wholesome; and that such as have been toasted in a furnace afford little nourishment. (Deipnos. ii.) It appears, from Macrobius, whose account of them is very interesting, that they were eaten at the dessert. He states decidedly that the royal nut of the Greeks was the juglans or walnut. (Sat. iii, 18.) Simeon Seth says that, when taken before other food, they are apt to prove laxative or emetic. Averrhoes says the like of them. He adds that filberts are not so apt to produce this effect. According to Rhases, they are apt to prove injurious to the stomach and liver.
The Siphnian Diphilus says that almonds are attenuant, diuretic, purgative, and afford little nourishment; that the green contain bad juices, and are possessed of stronger medicinal properties; but that the dried are more flatulent, and apter to swim on the stomach. He adds that such as are tender, full, and are whitened, contain milky juices which are more wholesome. Simeon Seth says that bitter almonds are hotter, more attenuant, and more incisive than the ripe. He adds that filberts are the most nutritious of the nuts but difficult to digest.
The pistachio nut has been long very celebrated in the East and in Sicily. See Celsus (Hierobotanicon), and Brydone (Tour through Sicily.) Galen says that it possesses a certain degree of bitterness and astringency, and that it proves useful in obstructions of the liver, but that it affords little nourishment. He adds that it is neither beneficial nor injurious to the stomach. Simeon Seth remarks that the moderns looked upon pistacs as stomachic. Averrhoes speaks highly of them. Rhases says they are of a hotter nature than almonds. Avicenna also says of them that they are of a heating nature. Theophrastus describes the pistachio tree as a species of turpentine, and it is now acknowledged as such.