its name of Pyrus Cydonia, or simply Cydonia. If
not indigenous elsewhere in the East, it was very soon cultivated, and
especially in Palestine. It is not yet a settled point, and probably
never will be, but there is a strong consensus of most of the best
commentators, that the _Tappuach_ of Scripture, always translated Apple,
was the Quince. It is supposed to be the fruit alluded to in the
Canticles, "As the Apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
beloved among the sons; I sat down under his shadow with great delight,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste;" and in Proverbs, "A word fitly
spoken is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver;" and the tree is
supposed to have given its name to various places in Palestine, as
Tappuach, Beth-Tappuach, and Aen-Tappuach.

By the Greeks and Romans the Quince was held in honour as the fruit
especially sacred to Venus, who is often represented as holding a Quince
in her right hand, the gift which she received from Paris. In other
sculptures "the amorous deities pull Quinces in gardens and play with
them. For persons to send Quinces in presents, to throw them at each
other, to eat them together, were all tokens of love; to dream of
Quinces was a sign of successful love" (Rosenmuller). The custom was
handed down to mediaeval times. It was at a wedding feast that "they
called for Dates and Quinces in the pastry;" and Brand quotes a curious
passage from the "Praise of Musicke," 1586 ("Romeo and Juliet" was
published in 1596)--"I come to marriages, wherein as our ancestors did
fondly, and with a kind of doting, maintaine many rites and ceremonies,
some whereof were either shadowes or abodements of a pleasant life to
come, as the eating of a Quince Peare to be a preparative of sweet and
delightful dayes between the married persons."

To understand this high repute in which the Quince was held, we must
remember that the Quince of hot countries differs somewhat from the
English Quince. With us the fruit is of a fine, handsome shape, and of a
rich golden colour when fully ripe, and of a strong scent, which is very
agreeable to many, though too heavy and overpowering to others. But the
rind is rough and woolly, and the flesh is harsh and unpalatable, and
only fit to be eaten when cooked. In hotter countries the woolly rind is
said to disappear, and the fruit can be eaten raw; and this is the case
not only in Eastern countries, but also in the parts of Tropical America
to which th