Next in size after these are the fruit called by us “cotonea,”1752 by the Greeks “Cydonia,”1753 and first introduced from the island of Crete. These fruit bend the branches with their weight, and so tend to impede the growth of the parent tree. The varieties are numerous. The chrysomelum1754 is marked with indentations down it, and has a colour inclining to gold; the one that is known as the “Italian” quince, is of a paler complexion, and has a most exquisite smell: the quinces of Neapolis, too, are held in high esteem. The smaller varieties of the quince which are known as the “struthea,”1755 have a more pungent smell, but ripen later than the others; that called the “musteum,”1756 ripens the soonest of all. The cotoneum engrafted1757 on the strutheum, has produced a peculiar variety, known as the “Mulvianum,” the only one of them all that is eaten raw.1758 At the present day all these varieties are kept shut up in the antechambers of great men,1759 where they receive the visits of their courtiers; they are hung, too, upon the statues1760 that pass the night with us in our chambers.

There is a small wild1761 quince also, the smell of which, next to that of the strutheum, is the most powerful; it grows in the hedges.