[1381]. Castanea inseritur in se, et in salice, sed ex salice tardius maturat, et fit asperior in sapore. Pallad. xii. 7. 22. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 71. Plutarch speaks of certain gardens on the banks of the Cephissos, in Bœotia, in which he beheld pears growing on an oak-stock: ἦσαν δὲ καὶ δρύες ἀπίους ἀγαθὰς ἐκφέρουσαι. Sympos. ii. 6. 1.
[1382]. Geop. x. 41. 3. iv. 12. 5.
[1383]. Geop. iv. 4.
[1384]. Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce, t. i. p. 298.
[1385]. Idem. t. i. p. 288. Speaking of the fertility of the islands, Della Rocca remarks: “Le terroir y est si bon, et les arbres y viennent si vîte, que j’ai vu à Naxie des pépins d’orange de Portugal pousser en moins de huit ans de grands orangers, dont les fruits étoient les plus délicieux du monde, et la tige de l’arbre si haute, qu’il falloit une longue échelle pour y monter.”—Traité Complet des Abeilles, t. i. p. 6.
[1386]. On the artificial ripening of dates, Theoph. ii. 8. 4.
[1387]. Athen. iii. 19. Plut. Phoc. § 3. Xenoph. Vectigal. i. 3.
[1388]. Ὁ νοῦν ἔχων γεωργός, ὧν σπερμάτων κήδοιτο καὶ ἔγκαρπα βούλοιτο γενέσθαι, πότερα σπονδῇ ἂν θέρους εἰς ᾿Αδώνιδος κήπους ἀρῶν χαίροι θεωρῶν καλοὺς ἐν ἡμέραισιν ὀκτὼ γιγνομένους.—Plat. Phœd. t. i. p. 99. Suid. v. Ἀδώνιδ. κῆπ. t. i. p. 84. b. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 3. Caus. Plant. i. 12. 2. Eustath. ad Odyss. λ. p. 459. 4.
[1389]. Tod, Annals of Rajast’han, vol. i. p. 570.
[1390]. Cf. Athen. iii. 12. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 3. The fruit of the Egyptian sycamore, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, was eaten in antiquity as now. Athenæus, who was a native of the Delta, says they used to rip open the skin of the fruit with an iron claw, and leave it thus upon the tree for three days. On the fourth it was eatable, and exhaled a very agreeable odour. Deipnosoph. ii. 36. Theophrastus adds, that a little oil was likewise poured on the fruit when opened by the iron. De Caus. Plant. i. 17. 9. ii. 8. 4. In Malta figs are still sometimes ripened by introducing a little olive oil into the eye of the fruit, or by puncturing it with a straw or feather dipped in oil. Napier, Excursions along the Shores of the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 144. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 446.