Re: 'Nuptial Trees'
Cali Doxiadis wrote:
>
> Tim--maybe Cocker was thinking of a fruit we call "winter nespola" in
> Corfu. The fruit could be said to resemble the loquat as do the seeds,
> but the tree itself doesn't look like at all like the Eriobotrya
> japonica. The fruit ripens in late October, and is delicious when
> overripe and turning brown. I don't know the botanical name, but the
> "nespol" root of the tree Cocker refers to makes me think there's some
> connection there.
> Cali
>
>My first thoughts on the Italian "Nespole" is that the word sounds very similar to "Mespile" and given the Italian propensity for interchanging "n", "m" and "b" indiscriminately in their early texts, this may account for the confusion. Turner 1562/1568 is always useful in historic cases of this kind, but even he makes it plain the Renaissance Medlar could scarcely be muddled up with a modern Loquat.
What he writes is "Mespilus is named in Greek Mespile....the mespil or
medlar tree is full of pricks with a leaf like unto an oxiocantha. It
hath a pleasant fruit but small, which hath three stones in it.....it is
long in waxing ripe. It is pleasant to the stomach......There is another
kind of Medlar that groweth in Italy called of some Setanium and of
other Epimelis. The tree hath leaves like an apple tree but less. It
beareth a round apple good to be eaten. The first kind of Medlar groweth
not in England nor Germany ...but Matthiolus saith that it groweth about
Naples in Italy, and that it is called in Italian Azarolus. The second
kind is common in Italy, Germany and England..."
Medlars conform to Cali's description of Winter Nespola in that the
fruit is only really edible when it has changed from green to brown in
the late Autumn and virtually fermented. I think we are almost certain
to be talking about two different trees here.
Anthony
