3 j* i THE.'H 1ST ORY Book!. And *re have the ftrdro; atteftation of the. Rritifh language in direft confirmation of it^ all the Britifh terms, for the beech being evidently and merely Roman, Faighe, Faghe, or Faydh. The. Romans found the fir a native of the ifland. But the Romjms introduced the beech and their colonies together. ■ ., Nor was this the only tree which the Romans imported into Britain. They firft introduced among us, and from their -hands did our forefts firft receive, as the Britifh and prefent names of- the trees ilifSciently and equally evince, the Platanus or plane, the Tilia or teil, the Buxus or box, the- Ulmus or elm, and the Populus or poplar. And the. plane, originally a native of Afia, and tranlplanted into Sicily, foon pafled over the Strait into Italy, and before the year 79 had reached the moft northerly fliore of Gaul V The principal produ&iou of our orchards at prefent is derived fe us- from the prinueval Britons, 1 aiid in the Welch theCorhifli the Armorican and the Irifh languages is invariably denominated the Avail, Aball, or apple. This fruitage feems to have been originally imported into* Britain by the firft colonies of the Bri- tons in general and by the Britilh Haedui of Somerfetfhire in particular. Hence 1 wfe find the prefent fite of the well-known Glaftonbury to have been diftinguifhed, before the arrival of the Romans, by the discriminating title of Avallonia or the Apple- orchard 6 . And the foft keen relifh of the fruit fb ftrongly re- commended it to the Britons, that another Avellana arofe in the north of England ?. And before the third century the fruit ap- pears to have been difleminated over the ifland, and to have even ftocked the diftant aftd unromanized regions of Shetland with large plantations of the trees *. But to the native and the im- ported fruit-trees of the Britifh garden the Romans naturally added feveral plants, Thefe muft have been the Pyms or pear, the Prunum Damafcenum or damafcene, the Gerafus or cherry, the Arbor Perfica, perch, or. peach,' the A prica or apricot *, and the Cydonia or quince. x Pears, the original production probably of moft of the fbutherly countries, abounded particularly in Italy, and, as Efficiently appears from -the .Roman name of the fruit n
