708 Ulysses Aldrovandi

for just as in the womb of animals two fetuses are joined together in many ways—such as when they cling together after a membrane is torn and then coalesce over time—so too the tender substance of fruits, when too close together, fuses and produces twin fruits. Indeed, if the pairing of births in an animal's womb varies according to the position of the infants, similarly, the merging of fruits differs according to their position, as we can see in the illustrated fruits.

Furthermore, just as fetuses in the animal womb are often born hunched or malformed due to a lack of space or pressure from neighboring parts, fruits—whether from herbs or trees—are born hunched, crooked, or poorly formed for the same reason: the confinement of their surroundings or the pressure of a nearby branch. Sometimes it also happens that one well-formed part of a fruit receives excellent nourishment and grows accordingly, while another poorly positioned part receives little food and fails to grow, resulting in a hunched fruit, as the reader may observe in the provided figures of melons.

To prove that confinement and pressure can render the tender offspring of plants monstrous, we can support this with another observation made of a turnip in the year of our Lord 1602. Among others in the Bolognese countryside, a turnip grew into a monstrous shape because it appeared as two turnips joined together. It looked like this: the first turnip, from which the plant's stalk emerged, was three or four times thicker than the other; this second one was attached near the lower part of the larger one and was white mixed with red. A root hung from it, through which nourishment from the earth was shared with both.

We believe the cause of this twin turnip was the root of a certain species of grass that had entwined the turnip at the very beginning of its development. By squeezing and constricting it, the grass caused the turnip to mimic two separate offspring. From this, we can conclude that pressure and lack of space are the causes of poor formation and monstrous deformity in both animal fetuses and the fruits of plants.

From the monstrous fruits of herbs, we may move up to the fruits of trees, where with no small curiosity we can contemplate similar monstrous effects and twin fruits. First, we shall say something about the twin fruit of the almond tree.

The almond is a very well-known tree because of its pleasant fruit. It is supported by a very large and robust root, has a tall trunk, and long willow-like leaves similar to those of a peach, which the whole tree resembles. It usually produces a white flower and a heart-shaped fruit covered by a double shell, like a walnut.

If we look at the differences among these fruits, they vary by taste, size, and shape. There are sweet almonds and bitter ones. There are also larger and smaller ones; for instance, some brought from Asia are three times smaller than others. However, they are mostly oblong and heart-shaped, though round ones are also found. To these we can add the "peach-almond" common in Alsace, whose stony shell is wrinkled like a peach's and whose kernel has a pleasant peach-like scent. Thus, in Illustration XXV, we provide drawings not only of twin almonds but also of a large heart-shaped almond and a round almond nearly the size of a peach. We shall discuss these later, God willing, in the *History of Plants*, since all the aforementioned fruits were depicted in the same plate.

Turning our attention to apples, we can present for inspection monstrous fruits of this kind that have already been observed. The apple tree is called *mēlea* by the Greeks, and its fruit *mēlon* (or *mel*) because of its sweetness; the Latins call it *pomum* because it is said to "take away drink," as eating it quenches thirst.

If we investigate the different types of apples, Dioscorides wrote that there are common apples, quinces, peaches, apricots, citrons, spring apples, honey-apples, Epirotic apples, and wild apples. Pliny lists many more, and finally, Tabernaemontanus enumerates almost countless varieties, which take their names from their discoverer, their place of origin, their taste, scent, color, size, and shape; these will be dealt with individually in their proper place.

Among the types of cultivated apples, certain round "Epirotic" ones are numbered, which the Italians today call *Meleroſe*, perhaps from their rosy color. The Greeks testify that these apples first originated in Epirus, hence they call them Epirotic