Asia and Egypt sent a great quantity to Europe; and, in order that they might keep better during this long voyage, a part of them were dried, and the rest were preserved--that is to say, the best--in honey and sweet wine.[XII-73] These were the only kind known in Rome in the time of Cato (150 years B.C.), but the Romans, then novices in the art of good living, would have but ill-appreciated the delicate and perfumed pulp of Damascus plums, at the moment when, hardly plucked from the tree, their fresh and velvet-like bloom delights the eye and tempts the palate of epicures. Two centuries later the science of good living made incredible progress. A magiric atmosphere enveloped the capital of the universe with its delicious fragrance, and the joyous free livers of Italy cultivated in their gardens plums of the most beautiful purple and gold,[XII-74] far superior to the much-extolled fruit from Damascus and Memphis. The fields everywhere offered such luxuriance of plum trees that Pliny, the opposition man, or _juste milieu_ of that time, complained of their number,[XII-75] and grieved at what he fancied a useless and expensive profusion of them. The ancient Counts of Anjou transplanted the plums of Damascus into their province; and the good King René of Sicily, Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence, introduced them into southern Europe.[XII-76] The plums of _Monsieur_ are thus named because Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV., was very fond of them.[XII-77] The plums of _Reine Claude_ owe their name to the first consort of Francis I., daughter of Louis XII.[XII-78] The plums of _Mirabelle_ were brought from Provence into Lorraine by King René.[XII-79] XIII. PIP FRUIT. QUINCE TREE. This tree appears to have been a native of Cydon, a city of Crete; from hence it passed into Greece,[XIII-1] and soon became the delight of its voluptuous inhabitants. The environs of Corinth, above all, were noted for the sweetness and beauty of their quinces,[XIII-2] which the enlightened luxury of Attica preferred to all others. Rome did not fail to enrich itself with a fruit[XIII-3] to which the ingenuity of culinary art was to give a new flavour. Young plants were first imported from abroad, and put in boxes;[XIII-4] but the Romans knew not how to rear them, and were obliged for a long time to content themselves with excellent quinces preserved in honey, and sent from Iberia and Syria to the great capital.[XIII-5]