There is a great difference also among the various acinus fruits. First of all, among the grapes, we find considerable difference in respect to their firmness, the thinness or thickness of the skin, and the stone inside the fruit, which in some varieties is remarkably small, and in others even double in number: these last producing but very little juice. Very different, again, are the berries of the ivy[1997] and the elder;[1998] as also those in the pomegranate,[1999] these being the only ones that are of an angular shape. These last, also, have not a membrane for each individual grain, but one to cover them all in common, and of a pale colour. All these fruits consist, too, of juice and flesh, and those more particularly which have but small seeds inside.
There are great varieties, too, among the berry[2000] fruits; the berry of the olive being quite different from that of the laurel, the berry of the lotus[2001] from that of the cornel, and that of the myrtle from the berry of the lentisk. The berry, however, of the aquifolium[2002] and the thorn[2003] is quite destitute of juice.
The cherry[2004] occupies a middle place between the berry and the acinus fruit: it is white at first, which is the case also with nearly all the berries. From white, some of the berries pass to green, the olive and the laurel, for instance; while in the mulberry, the cherry, and the cornel, the change is to red; and then in some to black, as with the mulberry, the cherry, and the olive, for instance.
CHAP. 30. (25.)—NINE VARIETIES OF THE CHERRY.
The cherry did not exist in Italy before the period of the victory gained over Mithridates by L. Lucullus, in the year of the City 680. He was the first to introduce this tree from Pontus, and now, in the course of one hundred and twenty years, it has travelled beyond the Ocean, and arrived in Britannia even. The cherry, as we have already stated,[2005] in spite of every care, it has been found impossible to rear in Egypt. Of this fruit, that known as the “Apronian”[2006] is the reddest variety, the Lutatian[2007] being the blackest, and the Cæcilian[2008] perfectly round. The Junian[2009] cherry has an agreeable flavour, but only, so to say, when eaten beneath the tree, as they are so remarkably delicate that they will not bear carrying. The highest rank, however, has been awarded to the duracinus[2010] variety, known in Campania as the “Plinian”[2011] cherry, and in Belgica to the Lusitanian[2012] cherry, as also to one that grows on the banks of the Rhenus. This last kind has a third colour, being a mixture[2013] of black, red, and green, and has always the appearance of being just on the turn to ripening. It is less than five years since the kind known as the “laurel-cherry” was introduced, of a bitter but not unpleasant flavour, the produce of a graft[2014] upon the laurel. The Macedonian cherry grows on a tree that is very small,[2015] and rarely exceeds three cubits in height; while the chamæcerasus[2016] is still smaller, being but a mere shrub. The cherry is one of the first trees to recompense the cultivator with its yearly growth; it loves cold localities and a site exposed to the north.[2017] The fruit are sometimes dried in the sun, and preserved, like olives, in casks.
CHAP. 31. (26.)—THE CORNEL. THE LENTISK.
The same degree of care is expended also on the cultivation of the cornel[2018] and the lentisk;[2019] that it may not be thought, forsooth, that there is anything that was not made for the craving appetite of man! Various flavours are blended together, and one is compelled to please our palates by the aid of another—hence it is that the produce of different lands and various climates are so often mingled with one another. For one kind of food it is India that we summon to our aid, and then for another we lay Egypt under contribution, or else Crete, or Cyrene, every country, in fact: no, nor does man stick at poisons[2020] even, if he can only gratify his longing to devour everything: a thing that will be still more evident when we come to treat of the nature of herbs.
CHAP. 32. (27.)—THIRTEEN DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF JUICES.
While upon this subject, it may be as well to state that there are no less than thirteen different flavours[2021] belonging in common to the fruits and the various juices: the sweet, the luscious, the unctuous, the bitter, the rough, the acrid,[2022] the pungent, the sharp, the sour, and the salt; in addition to which, there are three other kinds of flavours of a nature that is truly singular. The first of these last kinds is that flavour in which several other flavours are united, as in wine, for instance; for in it we are sensible of the rough, the pungent,[2023] and the luscious, all at the same moment, and all of them flavours that belong to other substances. The second of these flavours is that in which we are sensible at the same instant of a flavour that belongs to another substance, and yet of one that is peculiar to the individual object of which we are tasting, such as that of milk, for instance: indeed, in milk we cannot correctly say that there is any pronounced flavour that is either sweet, or unctuous, or luscious, a sort of smooth taste[2024] in the mouth being predominant, which holds the place of a more decided flavour. The third instance is that of water, which has no flavour whatever, nor, indeed, any flavouring principle;[2025] but still, this very absence of flavour is considered as constituting one of them, and forming a peculiar class[2026] of itself; so much so, indeed, that if in water any taste or flavouring principle is detected, it is looked upon as impure.
In the perception of all these various flavours the smell plays a very considerable[2027] part, there being a very great affinity between them. Water, however, is properly quite inodorous: and if the least smell is to be perceived, it is not pure water. It is a singular thing that three of the principal elements[2028] of Nature—water, air, and fire—should have neither taste nor smell, nor, indeed, any flavouring principle whatever.