The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-09-10

! instruct us upon this point. The first
two tell us that it was regarded as deli
cious food, but are silent respecting the
manner of eating it; and Apicius, who
devotes chapter to it, in his Treatise
on cooking, contents himself by telling
us in very few words the method of con-
serving it, without saying whether twas
eaten, although he gives in another chap
ter a recipe for making roseate wine
with its leaves.
] All these writers. speak of it always as
an exotic fruit, and not until a long time
after was it naturalized in Italy.
We do not know whether the rigor of
our climate, which, in olden time, was
colder than now, retarded the naturali-
zation of this beautiful tree, or whether
we should attribute the delay to the
| difficulty of transporting it so far, in the
centuries when communication was so
difficult and the useful arts so little cul-
tivated.
The first of these conjectures would
seem the least likely, but finds in history
more foundation than the second. Conn
municatiOn was, indeed, more difficult
in those days, when navigation then in
its infancy, lacked the mariners COM
pass, and the manners and preiudices of
Viz AAAOA . AOOAottOO ROOblCO
among themselves that civilization and
philosophy have since overthrown. But
we also known that the luxurious de-
mands of the worlds conquerors had
penetrated to the most remote regions,
and that nothing was spared which could
augment the delights of the effeminate
Caesars. a
Pliny tells us that attempts had been
made to transport the citron in earthern
vases, perforated to give air to the roots.
This attempt, which the length of the
voyage may have defeated, would have
been more successfulif, instead of plants,
they had carried well-ripened fruit, OF
which they might have sowed the seeds.
But we cannot suppose that the Romans,
excelling as they didin agriculture, were
ignorant or neglectful (if it had beer
practicable) OF means so simple anC
natural for placing fin their gardens {
} fruit SO precious Ehere must, then
cnnt ss and sNig sSabstae Gle t. sur
1t would be easyEto demonstrate b.
convincing arguments that many Euro
pean countries haveEexperienced in TIL
revolution of centuries marked altera
tons in the temperature of their climate
The cultivation of the earth, the cuttins
OF trees, and drying of marshes, woulC
produce, naturally, ihis effect but it il
not necessary to recdr to these physica
discussions in order to establish fact o.
which history gives us certain proof.
Virgil, in his Georges, says in his
time it was necessary to cover the sheer
in the Roman field in order to prevent
their perishing in winter.
i Pliny, the younger, in describing a
field which he owned in Tuscany, said
that the cold was so severe there that
they could not cultivate the olive, the
myrtle, or other delicate trees.
Horace asserts that the streets OF
Rome were full OF iceand snow, and that
in rigorous winters the rivers, and even
the rapid waters, were covered by ice.
Juvenal pictures for us the supersti-
tious female breaking the ice to make
additions "a religious ceremony
Strabo reports that the vine made lit
tie growth i'll the parts of France hor-
dering on the ocean; and that if it grew
at all i'll such places it never bore fruit.
Finally, vast number of passages tc
be found in old writings prove to us in
an incontestable manner that the climate
of Italy and France. was, in those long
past times, much colder than it is now
This was surely the obstacle which hin,
dered the ancients from acclimating in
Europe the citron, whose fruit was per
fectly well known to the Romans, anC
and was to them an article of luxury.
q