Vitruv. vi. 9. ----- The Greeks had a variety of other oils besides that procured from the olive,[1608] as walnut-oil, oil of terebinth, oil of sesamum, oil of violets, oil of almonds, oil of Palma Christi, or castor-oil, oil of saffron, oil of Cnidian laurel, oil of datura, oil of lentisk, oil of mastic, oil of myrtle, and oil of mustard. They had, likewise,[1609] the green and wild-olive oil, and the double-refined oil of Sicyon, together with imitations of the Spanish and Italian oils. ----- Footnote 1608: Geop. ix. 18. Footnote 1609: Geop. ix. 19, seq. iii. 13. Dioscor. i. 140. ----- As fruit of all kinds was in great request among the Greeks, they had recourse to numerous contrivances[1610] for ensuring an unfailing supply throughout the year. At many of these our gardeners may, perhaps, smile, but they were, nevertheless, most of them ingenious, and, probably, effectual, though the fruit thus preserved may have been dear when brought to market. Into the details of all their methods it will be unnecessary to enter: the following were the principal and most curious. Walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, &c., were gathered and kept in the ordinary way. They understood the art of blanching almonds, which were afterwards dried in the sun. Medlars, service-berries, winter-apples, and the like, having been gathered carefully, were simply laid up in straw, whether on the loft-floor or in baskets. This, likewise, was sometimes the case with quinces, which, together with apples and pears, were, on other occasions, deposited in dry fig-leaves. For these, in the case of pears and apples, walnut-leaves were often substituted, sometimes piled under and over them in heaps, at other times wrapped and tied about the fruit, the hues and odours of which they were supposed greatly to improve. ----- Footnote 1610: Geop. x. 10–70. Cf. Mazois, Pal. de Scaurus, p. 182, seq. -----