History of Rare Plants

MOREOVER, near the beginning of the year 1576, a small tree of this kind was sent to me by the Illustrious Lord David Ungnad, then the Imperial Legate to the Emperor of the Turks, and now President of the War Council at Vienna; it was the thickness of an arm and exceeded a man's height, along with several other rarer shrubs. But since the winter was very harsh, and they had been carelessly tended by the one who brought them, they all perished by the roots on the journey, except for this one and the Horse Chestnut, of which more later; indeed, this one was very nearly lost as well. When it was brought into a cellar in the same small cask in which it had been carried, and with the same earth, and brought out the following April, I found the branches were entirely dry; I cut them back to the living wood and placed the vessel in a shady spot, so that it might not, being dried out by the sun's rays, sprout again with more difficulty. At last, in the autumn, it began to put forth several shoots near the root; these, when they were removed from the part of the trunk to which they were attached (the useless and dry part having been cut away) and transferred to another vessel, I then nourished with great care, so that I afterwards possessed a most elegant little tree. The remaining shoots also, when they had grown a little taller, took root when bent into the ground and produced other small trees, which I shared with both princes and friends.

I have been perhaps a little longer in recounting these things, and tedious to the reader; yet I could not pass them over in silence, so that students might understand the difficulties by which I attained possession of this most rare plant.

Trabison curmasi. Trebizond Date.

Furthermore, this little tree was sent under the name Trabison curmasi, which some interpret as the Trebizond date. But since it has nothing in common with the palm, I judge this name to have been bestowed upon it quite improperly.

Belon’s Laurocerasus.

BELON, in the first book of his Observations, chapter 44, lists among the evergreen trees a certain one from Trebizond that bears cherries; he also mentions it in that booklet to which he gave the title On the Manner of Taming Wild Trees, chapter 20 (I have translated both books into Latin, so that students of botany might enjoy the labors of that man which were written in the French language) and calls it Laurocerafus: yet he does not describe its history, except that in the same chapter he makes its branch equal to a branch of the Citron tree, and asserts that he later saw a very large tree of it in the garden of Prince Doria at Genoa. Since, however, the leaves of this tree of ours have the greatest resemblance to the leaves of the Citron tree, and do not fall off, and since it is probable that it was first brought from Trebizond to Constantinople, as the name indicates, I believe it to be entirely the same as that which Belon observed. But the name Laurocerafus, as far as I can gather by conjecture, was imposed upon it from the similarity of the leaves to laurel and the fruit being equal to cherries: although in the latter place he asserts that he found it from Pliny's history. Truly, I do not remember reading the word Laurocerafus anywhere in Pliny; he indeed, in book 15, chapter 25, where he enumerates the kinds of cherries, treats of cherries Laurel cherry. grafted onto laurels. He says, "It is less than five years since those they call laurel [cherries] came forth, of a not unpleasant bitterness, grafted upon the Laurel." I can scarcely persuade myself, however, that he means this tree which we are presenting.

But since we lack a more suitable appellation, and Belon does not seem to have used it without judgment, we shall call it Laurocerafus with him, until some more convenient name offers itself from the monuments of the ancients. If, however, the name "Trebizond Palm," which it acquired at Constantinople, or "Trebizond Cherry," as Belon also uses in the French language, is more pleasing to anyone, he may use it for all I care.

Second Lotus of Theoph.

Furthermore, the opinion of Dalechamps does not satisfy me, who judges this plant to be the second Lotus of Theophrastus, History of Plants, book 4, chapter 4: for the fruit of this does not grow after the manner of the myrtle, alternately, or as the Greek text of Theophrastus has it, καθάπερ τὰ μύρτα παράλληλα, but in clusters like grapes; certainly its flowers, as I have said, grow many together in a cluster on a small spike. Nor do I accept that he establishes the "African Lotus" of Mattioli to be the Trebizond date, to which he attributes a hard stone, for which reason he διόσπυρος of Theoph. wishes it to be the διόσπυρος of Theophrastus, Hist. Plant., book 3, chapter 13, whose stone is hard—an opinion he also holds in the marginal scholia to Athenaeus, which he translated into Latin. But the African Lotus has not a stone, but only seeds. Indeed, as many as I have observed cultivated at Vienna in Austria and among the Pannonians, they bore fruit, to be sure, but it was devoid of seed and consisted only of sweet pulp, although they had sprung from seed sent from Italy. Likewise, it might be the Faba Graeca of Pliny, book 16, chapter 30.

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THE CITRON TREE. CHAPTER IV.

The similarity of the leaves causes me to subjoin to the preceding tree a few things concerning the kinds of Citron trees which I observed during my travels in Spain.

There are various kinds of Citrons. For some are called Cidras by the Spaniards, others Limones, others Limas, others Naranjas, others Toronjas.

Cidras.

That which bears the Citria or Cidras is called Cidrera; it has a short trunk, long firm branches, thick and sharp thorns, and large, broad leaves, somewhat serrated around the circumference. It bears a large and oblong fruit, sometimes equaling the size of a honeydew melon, with a rind that turns yellow upon ripening, and a dense, white, firm, and edible flesh, with almost no internal juice; the scent of the fruit is most fragrant. The flowers are white, quite often purplish on the outside, and scented. This tree is always either flowering or laden with fruit. There are those who enclose the growing fruit in clay molds expressing various figures, and leave them so until the fruit attains maturity, then finally remove the molds so that the fruit may take on its native color—truly a pleasant sight.