The quince grows wild in the woods in the north of Persia, near the Caspian Sea, in the region to the south of the Caucasus, and in Anatolia.[1172] A few botanists have also found it apparently wild in the Crimea, and in the north of Greece;[1173] but naturalization may be suspected even in the east of Europe, and the further we advance towards Italy, especially towards the south-west of Europe and Algeria, the more it becomes probable that the species was naturalized at an early period round villages, in hedges, etc. No Sanskrit name is known for the quince, whence it may be inferred that its area did not extend towards the centre of Asia. Neither is there any Hebrew name, though the species is wild upon Mount Taurus.[1174] The Persian name is _haivah_,[1175] but I do not know whether it is as old as Zend. The same name, _aiva_, exists in Russian for the cultivated quince, while the name of the wild plant is _armud_, from the Armenian _armuda_.[1176] The Greeks grafted upon a common variety, _strution_, a superior kind, which came from Cydon, in Crete, whence κυδωνιον, translated by the Latin _malum cotoneum_, by _cydonia_, and all the European names, such as _codogno_ in Italian, _coudougner_, and later _coing_ in French, _quitte_ in German, etc. There are Polish, _pigwa_, Slav, _tunja_,[1177] and Albanian (Pelasgian?), _ftua_,[1178] names which differ entirely from the others. This variety of names points to an ancient knowledge of the species to the west of its original country, and the Albanian name may even indicate an existence prior to the Hellenes. Its antiquity in Greece may also be gathered from the superstition, mentioned by Pliny and Plutarch, that the fruit of the quince was a preservation from evil influences, and from its entrance into the marriage rites prescribed by Solon. Some authors go so far as to maintain that the apple disputed by Hera, Aphrodite, and Athene was a quince. Those who are interested in such questions will find details in Comes’s paper on the plants represented in the frescoes at Pompeii.[1179] The quince tree is figured twice in these, which is not surprising, as the tree was known in Cato’s time.[1180] It seems to me probable that it was naturalized in the east of Europe before the epoch of the Trojan war. The quince is a fruit which has been little modified by cultivation; it is as harsh and acid when fresh as in the time of the ancient Greeks. +Pomegranate+—_Punica granatum_, Linnæus.