t reputation were its
horses, distinguished into two breeds, an ordinary kind, of which
Media produced annually many thousands, and a kind of rare size and
excellence, known under the name of Nisaean. These last are celebrated
by Herodotus, Strabo, Arrian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Suidas, and others.
They are said to have been of a peculiar shape; and they were equally
famous for size, speed, and stoutness. Strabo remarks that they resemble
the horses known in his own time as Parthian; and this observation seems
distinctly to connect them with the Turkoman breed mentioned above,
which is derived exactly from the old Parthian country. In color they
were often, if not always, white. We have no representation on the
monuments which we can regard as certainly intended for a Nissean horse,
but perhaps the figure from Persepolis may be a Persian sketch of the
animal. [PLATE III., Fig. 4.]

The mules and small cattle (sheep and goats) were in sufficient repute
to be required, together with horses, in the annual tribute paid to the
Persian king.

Of vegetable products assigned to Media by ancient writers, the most
remarkable is the "Median apple," or citron. Pliny says it was the sole
tree for which Media was famous, and that it would only grow there
and in Persia. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Virgil, and other writers,
celebrate its wonderful qualities, distinctly assigning it to the same
region. The citron, however, will not grow in the country which has been
here termed Media. It flourishes only in the warm tract between Shiraz
and the Persian Gulf, and in the low sheltered region, south of the
Caspian, the modern Ghilan and Mazanderan. No doubt it was the inclusion
of this latter region within the limits of Media by many of the
later geographers that gave to this product of the Caspian country an
appellation which is really a misnomer.

Another product whereto Media gave name, and probably with more reason,
was a kind of clover or lucerne, which was said to have been introduced
into Greece by the Persians in the reign of Darius, and which was
afterwards cultivated largely in Italy. Strabo considers this plant to
have been the chief food of the Median horses, while Dioscorides assigns
it certain medicinal qualities. Clover is still cultivated, in the
Elburz region, but horses are now fed almost entirely on straw and
barley.

Media was also famous for its silphium, or assafoetida, a plant which
the country still produces, tho