Pliny Natural History, Vol. IV (Loeb Latin-English)

...which is famous in the records of both languages, for it never sheds its leaves. Immediately, the mythological tradition of Greece added that Jupiter lay with Europa under it—as if there were not another tree of the same kind on the island of Cyprus! But from this specific tree, first in Crete itself—so eager is human nature for novelty—slips were planted that reproduced this defect. Since the greatest recommendation of this tree is its ability to ward off the sun in summer and admit it in winter, this was indeed a defect.

12 During the reign of Claudius, a very wealthy Thessalian eunuch—a freedman of Marcellus Aeserninus who had enrolled himself among the emperor’s freedmen to gain power—brought this variety of plane tree from Crete to Italy and introduced it to his suburban estate. He might deservedly be called "Dionysius" An allusion to the tyrant Dionysius, often used to imply vanity or excessive ambition. as well. These monstrosities from abroad still endure in Italy, in addition to those that Italy has devised for herself.

13 VI.

There is also the variety called the "ground-plane," stunted in height, for we have discovered the art of producing abortions even in trees. Therefore, in the class of trees, we must also address the unhappy existence of dwarfs. This size is produced by specific methods of planting and pruning. Clipped groves nemora tonsilia were invented within the last eighty years by Gaius Matius, a member of the Equestrian order and a friend of the late Emperor Augustus.

14 VII.

The cherry, the peach, and all trees with Greek or foreign names are also exotic. However, those among them...