Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT-TREES., CHAP. 29.

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CHAP. 29.—THE RELATIVE NATURES OF BERRY FRUITS.

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 ivy¹ and the elder;² as also those in the pomegranate,³ 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 berry⁴ fruits; the berry of the olive being quite different from that of the laurel, the berry of the lotus⁵ from that of the cornel, and that of the myrtle from the berry of the lentisk. The berry, however, of the aquifolium⁶ and the thorn⁷ is quite destitute of juice.

The cherry⁸ 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.

1 See B. xvi. c. 52.

2 See B. xxiv. c. 35.

3 See B. xiii. c. 34.

4 "Baccis." Berries, properly so called.

5 The Celtis Australis of Linnæus.

6 Supposed by some to be the holly. See B. xxv. c. 72.

7 He alludes to a variety of the crategus.

8 The Cerasus vulgaris of modern botanists. It is said to have obtained its name from Cerasus, in Asia Minor, where Lucullus found it.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 29.—THE RELATIVE NATURES OF BERRY FRUITS.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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Table of Contents:

CHAP. 29.—THE RELATIVE NATURES OF BERRY FRUITS.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.