The ancient Greeks do not mention the common jujube, but only another species, _Zizyphus lotus_. At least, such is the opinion of the critic and modern botanist, Lenz.[951] It must be confessed that the modern Greek name _pritzuphuia_ has no connection with the names formerly attributed in Theophrastus and Dioscorides to some Zizyphus, but is allied to the Latin name _zizyphus_ (fruit _zizyphum_) of Pliny, which does not occur in earlier authors, and seems to be rather of an Oriental than of a Latin character. Heldreich[952] does not admit that the jujube tree is wild in Greece, and others say “naturalized, half-wild,” which confirms the hypothesis of a recent introduction. The same arguments apply to Italy. The species may have become naturalized there after the introduction into gardens mentioned by Pliny. In Algeria the jujube is only cultivated or half-wild.[953] So also in Spain. It is not mentioned in Marocco, nor in the Canary Isles, which argues no very ancient existence in the Mediterranean basin. It appears to me probable, therefore, that the species is a native of the north of China; that it was introduced and became naturalized in the west of Asia after the epoch of the Sanskrit language, perhaps two thousand five hundred or three thousand years ago; that the Greeks and Romans became acquainted with it at the beginning of our era, and that the latter carried it into Barbary and Spain, where it became partially naturalized by the effect of cultivation. +Lotus Jujube+—_Zizyphus lotus_, Desfontaines. The fruit of this jujube is not worthy of attention except from an historical point of view. It is said to have been the food of the lotus-eater, a people of the Lybian coast, of whom Herod and Herodotos[954] have given a more or less accurate account. The inhabitants of this country must have been very poor or very temperate, for a berry the size of a small cherry, tasteless, or slightly sweet, would not satisfy ordinary men. There is no proof that the lotus-eaters cultivated this little tree or shrub. They doubtless gathered the fruit in the open country, for the species is common in the north of Africa. One edition of Theophrastus[955] asserts, however, that there were some species of lotus without stones, which would imply cultivation. They were planted in gardens, as is still done in modern Egypt,[956] but it does not seem to have been a common custom even among the ancients. For the rest, widely different opinions have been held touching the lotus of the lotus-eaters,[957] and it is needless to insist upon a point so obscure, in which so much must be allowed for the imagination of a poet and for popular ignorance. The jujube tree is now wild in dry places from Egypt to Marocco, in the south of Spain, Terracina, and the neighbourhood of Palermo.[958] In isolated Italian localities it has probably escaped from cultivation.