Athen. ii. 33–37. A dainty of a very peculiar character is sometimes seen on the tables of the modern Greeks. “We were served also with some φασκομῆλια, or sage apples, the inflated tumours formed upon a species of sage, and the effect of the puncture of a cynops.”—Sibth. in Walp. Mem. t. i. p. 62. Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 15. ----- Filberts, walnuts, and almonds,[683] deservedly held a high place in the estimation of the ancients. Of almonds, the island of Naxos had the reputation of producing very excellent ones, and those of Cypros also enjoyed considerable reputation. These latter were longer in form than the former; like pickled olives they were eaten at the commencement of a repast, for the purpose of producing thirst; and bitter almonds were considered a preservative against intoxication, as we learn from an anecdote of Tiberius’s physician, who could encounter three bottles when thus fortified, but easily succumbed if deprived of his almonds. This fruit being extremely common in Greece, they had their almond-crackers, as we have our nut-crackers, which at Sparta were called _moucerobatos_ but _amygdalocatactes_ in the rest of Greece.[684] ----- Footnote 683: Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 11. 2. Footnote 684: Athen. ii. 40. ----- The larger kind of chestnut, sometimes denominated the “acorns of Zeus,” appears to have been introduced into Greece from the countries round the Pontos Euxinos, where they were produced in great abundance, particularly in the environs of Heraclea. There was, likewise, a sort of chestnut imported from Persia, and another from the neighbourhood of Sardes, in Lydia. Both these and the walnut were considered indigestible; but not so the almond, of which it was thought great quantities might be eaten with impunity.[685] The best kinds were produced in Thasos and Cypros, and, when freshly gathered, the almonds of the south are, undoubtedly, of all fruit, the most delicate. The walnuts and chestnuts of Eubœa, in the opinion of Mnestheos, were difficult of digestion, but fattening; and no one can have frequented the eastern shores of the Mediterranean without observing what an important article of food, and how nourishing, they are.[686] The pistachio nut, produced from a tree resembling the almond-tree, was imported from Syria and Arabia.[687] The _persea_, now no longer known, but supposed to be represented on the walls of the Memnonium,[688] at Thebes, is, also, said, by Poseidonios, the stoic, to have grown in Arabia and Syria, and I brought home a quantity of leaves, preserved in an Egyptian coffin, which are, probably, those of this tree. Pears, which were brought to table floating in water,[689] and service-berries, were grown in great perfection in the island of Ceos, and Bœotia was famous for its pomegranates.[690] ----- Footnote 685: Dioscorid. i. 176. Athen. ii. 42. Cf. Hippocrat. de Morb. ii. p. 484. Foës. Footnote 686: Athen. ii. 43. Footnote 687: Athen. xiv. 61.