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

...that have begun to be counted among the fruit-bearing trees will be specified. For the present, we will go through the true exotics, beginning with the one most valuable for health.

15 The Assyrian apple, which others call the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons. Its leaf resembles that of the strawberry-tree, but it has prickles running among the leaves. The fruit itself is not eaten, but it has an exceptionally strong scent—as do the leaves—which penetrates garments stored with them and keeps off harmful insects. The tree itself bears fruit at all seasons: some apples are falling while others are ripening and others are just forming.

16 Because of its great medicinal value, various nations have tried to transplant it to their own countries in earthenware pots, providing ventilation for the roots through holes (it is worth noting that all plants intended for long transport should be planted as tightly as possible to ensure they survive; this is a general rule that need not be repeated). But it has refused to grow except in Media and Persia. This is the fruit whose pips, as we have mentioned, the Parthian grandees cook with their food to sweeten their breath. No other tree is as highly praised among the Medes.

17 VIII. We have already mentioned the wool-bearing trees of the Chinese, and the great size of the trees in India. Virgil celebrated one of the trees peculiar to India, the ebony, stating that it grows nowhere else. Herodotus preferred to attribute it to Ethiopia, as part of the tribute...