VEGETABLES. who were present, and being praised by them, he said,—But I mean also to discuss every other dish that there is on the table, in order to make you admire my varied learning. And first of all I will speak of those which the Alexandrians call [Greek: konnara] and [Greek: paliouroi]. And they are mentioned also by Agathocles of Cyzicus, in the third book of his History of his Country; where, he says: "But after the thunderbolt had struck the tomb, there sprung up from the monument a tree which they call [Greek: konnaron]. And this tree is not at all inferior in size to the elm or the fir. And it has great numbers of branches, of great length and rather thorny; but its leaf is tender and green, and of a round shape. And it bears fruit twice a year, in spring and autumn. And the fruit is very sweet, and of the size of a phaulian olive, which it resembles both in its flesh and in its stone; but it is superior in the good flavour of its juice. And the fruit is eaten while still green; and when it has become dry they make it into paste, and eat it without either bruising it or softening it with water, but taking it in very nearly its natural state. And Euripides, in the Cyclops, speaks of—
A branch of paliurus.[1]
But Theopompus, in the twenty-first book of his History of Philip, mentions them, and Diphilus, the physician of Siphnus, also speaks of them, in his treatise on What may be eaten by People in Health, and by Invalids. But I have mentioned these things first, my good friends, not because they are before us at this moment, but because in the beautiful city of Alexandria, I have often eaten them as part of the second course, and as I have often heard the question as to their names raised there, I happened to fall in with a book here in which I read what I have now recounted to you.
63. And I will now take the pears ([Greek: apion]), which I see before me, and speak of them, since it is from them that the Peloponnesus was called [Greek: Apia],[2] because plants of the pear-*—Il. iii. 49,— </poem>
where Damm says the name is derived from some ancient king named Apis; but he adds that the name [Greek: Apia] is also used merely as meaning distant ([Greek: gên apo aphestôsan kai allodapên]), as is plain from what Ulysses says of himself to the Phæacians—
[Greek: kai gar egô xeinos talapeirios enthad' hikanô
têlothen ex apiês gaiês].—Odyss. vii. 25.
]
