1C.D. LI 8 3ft BY

POMARIUM BRITANNICUM

HISTORICAL AND BOTANICAL ACCOUNT

OF

FRUITS

KNOWN IN GREAT BRITAIN

BY

HENRY PHILLIPS

SECOND EDITION

Suxal rt yXuxspat, seal Ixa7a;

HOM ODYSS

" I have often been astonished at onr indifference respecting the applause of those who have introduced useful plants into their country^ the fruits of which are to this day so delightful. The names of these public benefactors are chiefly unknown, whilst their benefits pass from generation to generation : whereas, those of the destroyers of the human race are handed down to us in every page, as if we took more account of our enemies than our friends."

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PREFACE.

To the first historical account of fruits, which has been attempted in the English language, it may be expected that a Preface should be given. The Author would rather that his should be considered an apology for having undertaken so arduous a task, at a time when his utmost exertions were, from necessity, directed towards other objects. He is now induced to offer it to the world, not relying on his own ability so much as on the indulgence of the Public, to a work that has been finished under the most dis- tressing family affliction.

It will be observed, that the work has been compiled more for general readers than for botanists or practical gardeners. The former, as well as the latter, will find abun- dance of books worthy their attention, but

VI

which afford the greater part of society but little information, particularly those who have not enjoyed the advantage of a classi- cal education, as Botany is not yet divested of it's Latin garments, although there is no reason why it should continue to be shackled in a dead language, when our own is so co- pious and so rapidly becoming the dialect of one half of the world. The ancients wrote their botanical and medicinal works in the language of their respective countries, whilst the writings of the moderns on these subjects are so disguised in ancient lan- guage, that few but professors thoroughly understand them, thus depriving those whom they intended to enlighten from obtaining information. For many centuries, the pro- fession of the law was worded in a foreign tongue, and the prayers of the church were offered to the Almighty in a language little understood except by the clergy. These inconveniences have been remedied, and the Author hopes to see Medicine and Botany also dispossessed of their foreign

Vll

terms to the advantage of society in ge- neral.

By those who have made the history of fruits their study, it may be thought that the Author has added but little new information. This will be admitted, as he has not at- tempted to search for unknown fruits, or to relate anecdotes of them. His object has been to collect the earliest and best in- formation on this interesting subject, and to bring it into a small focus, as the accounts of fruits have hitherto been scattered in volu- minous works, of so great rarity and value, that none but those possessing extensive li- braries could gratify their inquiries on this subject, and even then it was obtained at a great expense of time; nor would the Author have been able to have compiled this humble volume, but for the kindness of the late Sir Joseph Banks, and several other botanical friends, whose liberality allowed him access to their collections. He is also greatly in- debted to many of the members of the Hor- ticultural Society, particularly to several prac-

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tical gardeners and nurserymen, whose atten- tion to their profession has not only honoured and enriched themselves, but so benefited and beautified their country, that it has be- come, as far as nature and art can make it, the paradise of the terrestrial world.

The art, of gardening is now so justly ap- preciated in this country, that the Author does not despair of seeing monuments of brass erected, by a generous public, to commemo- rate the memory of those neglected personages who first introduced the cultivation of the po- tatoe, and other useful vegetable productions into this kingdom. Even the brilliant talents of Ireland have not left a more lasting benefit to our sister country, than that man, who, braving the seas, procured for it the potatoe root. Our naval and military defenders are justly rewarded by the gratitude and the purse of the nation, and would gladly divide these honours with those that have made their coun- try more worthy of defence.

The Author considers, among other bless- ings, that gardening has bestowed on the

IX

City of London, that of it's being a preventive of pestilence and the plague, from the cir- cumstance of it's making cleanliness a mat- ter of profit in this immense f metropolis, from whence the soil is so carefully removed

•«** o>

to manure the ground occupied by gardeners

t •'•/•

in the environs, which are now^ calculated to exceed six thousand acres within twelve miles of London, that are constantly culti- vated for the supply of the markets with fruit anid vegetables.

Stevenson informs us, that 3,500 acres of ground in Surry alone are employed as market gardens; and Middleton observes, that from Kensington to Twickenham, the

land on both sides of the road for seven

•-

miles composes the great fruit gardens, north of the Thames, for the supply of the London market. It is gratifying to see the number of hands this ground employs. Even during

s. '- ' .»•-.•

the six winter months, it i$ computed 'that it affords work to five persons an "acre, and at least double that number for the summer months, who are principally females; and if we add porters, hawkers, &c. it will be

found to treble the amount, making the number exceed ninety thousand persons, who are in the summer months daily em- ployed by the gardeners, within a circle of ten or twelve miles around London.

The Author of the Pomarium Britannicum laid the foundation of his work from his- torical researches, which he has since en- deavoured 'to make more complete, by se- lections from Natural History and Botany. It will be observed, that he has referred to Pliny ofteher than to any other ancient

author ; but those who have studied this

• writer's Natural History, will acknowledge,

that he ha$ given more accurate accounts of fruit, than is contained in all the other ancient works together. Gerard was the first En- glish authbr that wrote largely on fruits and plants; and, as it was at the period when Horticulture first began to be studied in this country, his work also afforded much information. The author is much indebted to the reports of the Horticultural Society, whose liberality is as justly admired, as their prosperity is earnestly wished for.

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It is hoped that no part of this work will be found objectionable, as the principal study of the Compiler] has been to render it acceptable to all classes, and to fulfil his engagement with his liberal friends and pa- tronisers, to the utmost of his ability. Should it meet with an encouragement to demand an enlargement, he will consider it the proudest day of his life, when he sets about correcting and improving his first work : to make it more worthy attention, on this ac- count, he solicits from the Public such in- formation as may have escaped his notice.

INTRODUCTION.

IT is now universally allowed, that no coun- try ever attained to such eminence, either in commerce or the arts, as the British nation has at present.

As the mind has become more enlight- ened, the taste of course has become more pure; whence it is no wonder that man in this island has now so much directed his attention to an Employment which the Al- mighty deemed best adapted for his happi- ness in the creation of the world : " And

:

the Lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it."

No people of old, in their greatest pro- sperity, ever ceased to cultivate and honour this useful pursuit, which, far from being con- sidered a mean and vulgar study, command- ed the attention of kings themselves. Of Solomon it is written, that " he made cedars to be as the sycamore trees that are in the

B

vale for abundance/' and that he wrote a his- tory of all the plants, from the cedar of Liba- nus to the moss growing on the wall.

The Chinese have ever been celebrated for their attention to horticultural pursuits. A peasant, whose garden or fields are cultivated with the most care, is rewarded by being made a mandarin of his class.

Among the Persians, horticulture was most strictly attended to, if we may trust the authority of Xenophon, who states that Cyrus the Younger was accustomed to in- form himself, whether the private gardens of his subjects were well kept, and yielded a plenty of fruit ; that he rewarded the super- intendants or overseers whose provinces were the best cultivated ; and punished those who did not labour, and improve their grounds. I will not here omit the just compliment of Lysander to this monarch, who was telling him that many of the trees they were look- ing at had been planted by himself. The Lacedaemonian observed, " That the world had reason to extol the happiness of Cyrus, whose virtue was as eminent as his fortune, and who in the midst of the greatest affluence, splendor, and magnificence, had yet preserved a taste so pure, and so conformable to right

reason/'

Socrates makes this noble encomium up- on agriculture : " It is/' says he, " an em- ployment the most worthy of the applica- tion of man, the most ancient, and the most suitable to his nature; it is the com- mon nurse of all persons, in every age and condition of life ; it is the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, and of a thousand sober delights and honest pleasures ; it is the mistress and school of sobriety, temperance, justice, religion, and in short of all virtues, both civil and military/'

To prove in what estimation among the ancients they were held who encouraged or improved this art, it will be only necessary to attend to what is stated by Plutarch, who says that Ceres and Bacchus were mortals that were deified for having given to men immortal blessings, by bestowing on them the knowledge of raising fruits. At Rome especially, during the Commonwealth, the greatest generals, consuls, and dictators, with the same victorious hands that overthrew the enemies of their state in war, turned up the earth in time of peace.

Pompey and Vespasian bore in their tri- umphs trees which they had procured from the conquered nations, as monuments more durable and useful than those of brass or

B 2

marble ; and long before their time, after the sacking of Carthage, the Senate reserved from the libraries of that great city only twenty-eight volumes, (the writings of Mago on Husbandry,) which they caused to be translated into the Latin language, notwith- standing Cato had so lately written on the same subject.

As soon as they had in some sort made themselves masters of Britain, the Romans began to clear the forests, and encourage agriculture, which in this country was but little attended to, except upon the coast; and at that period the island possessed but few fruits, which for want of proper culture must have been very inferior in quality.

As the Romans made a practice of con- veying to their native country the natural productions of the conquered nations, and cultivating them with such care as to make them flourish as though indigenous to the climate, it is probable that, after the fall of their empire, the Crusaders, who often made that part of the world a rendezvous, observed and acquired a relish for many of those rarities, and brought back to their homes, not only new fruits, but those of their native soil in an improved state. After this, the intercourse of the priests with Rome

perhaps served to introduce other fruits, as the Catholic religion, enjoining frequent abstinence from animal food, must have made the possession of fruits more desira- btei

But it was during the reigns of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, that the most valuable fruits were introduced into this country, for at that time the desire of disco- very pervading England, many fruits, plants, and vegetables, hitherto unknown, were brought to this island from the new world. At that period so little does horticulture seem to have advanced, that Elizabeth was obliged to procure her salads from Holland; and, according to Fuller, green pease were seldom seen except from that country. " These," says he, " were dainties for ladies — they came so far and cost so dear/'

About the commencement of the seven- teenth century, Tusser, Gerard, Bacon, and others, turned their attention to natural his- tory and the cultivation of useful and orna- mental plants. After them, Linnreus alter- ing and enlarging the foundation upon which former naturalists had built, raised that sys- tem which will remain as long as science, time, and natural productions shall last.

Since this, there has been kept up. a con-

6

tinned search for every kind of tree, shrub, and herb, that could either please the eye, gratify the taste, or contribute to the advan- tage of medicine ; the hottest and the coldest climates have been explored ; and those plants that, for want of a warmer sun, would not flourish naturally in this country, have had an artificial clime and temperature fur- nished to them. Our cottage walls are now covered with the roses of China ; our gardens with the flowers of Persia; and even the woods ornamented with the spiral blossoms of the Asiatic chesnut : in short, the various plants of all the world have been introduced to beautify our happy land ; and with such success, as to render it difficult sometimes to say, which are natives, and which are not.

The Agricultural Society has succeeded in improving our farms, the very meadows of which are clothed anew : this produces the grass of the Italian fields, and that the pasture of the Netherlands : the chalky hills wave with corn, our marshes are no longer stagnated, and famine, which formerly suc- ceeded an unfavourable season, seems no longer to be dreaded.

The Horticultural Society was established in the year 1809? in order to give further 2

encouragement to this art, and to extend the best possible system of it to every part of the kingdom. By means of this company, what is discovered in one place, may be sent post as it were to others, through the remotest corners of the dominions, without travelling as before, by ages. Besides this advantage, individuals have sent out men of science to every quarter of the known world in search of plants, which have since been so diver- sified and multiplied, as to make it almost difficult to discover more varieties.

The author has ascertained, by the assist- ance of the Hortus Kewensis, that since the discovery of the new world, we have pro- duced 2,345 varieties of trees and plants from America, and upwards of 1,700 from the Cape of Good Hope, in addition to many thousands which have been brought from China, the East Indies, News Holland, va- rious parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, until the list of plants now cultivated in this country exceeds 120,000 varieties.

But flowers have principally engaged the care and study of students in horticulture and botany, while fruits have been in com- parison rather too much neglected, though of the two the latter are intrinsically the most valuable, for since the more frequent

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use of fruits and vegetables in this country, many dreadful diseases, as the leprosy, &c. are no longer prevalent, or have lost their baneful effects.

Induced by these reflections, the author endeavoured to discover to whom we are indebted for such comforts and advantages ; in doing which, he met with considerable difficulty, for modern historians are silent on the subject, though they often dwell long on others not really so interesting ; and the few works in our language on this head, are either too expensive or strictly botanical for general readers. However, encouraged by the observation of Sir Joseph Banks, that " Every anecdote that tends to throw light on the introduction, or on the pro- bable origin of plants now collected for use, is interesting, even though it is not quite perfect/' he continued his researches till he was flattered that the work, originally intended only as a private instruction for his family, might, with care, become worthy the perusal of the public, and enable him to make further inquiries and discoveries, which has emboldened him to send it forth to the world.

It has been the compiler's wish and en- deavour to render the work a History of

Fruits, that may not only be read through, but referred to, with some amusement; in it to blend entertainment with useful informa- tion, as much as the subject would allow; to combine and compare the accounts of the ancients with those of the moderns which are more improved ; and, in short, to treat on each species of fruit generally ; for to have descended into varieties, would have filled volumes with names alone, since he finds one individual possessing 400 kinds of strawberries, and others as great a variety of gooseberries, while the kinds of apples, pears, plums, &c. have been still more nu- merously multiplied.

And kinds are less material to his theme ; Which who would learn, as soon may tell the sands Driv'n by the western wind on Libyan lands, Or number, when the blust'ring Eurus roars, The billows beating on Ionian shores.

Dryden's VirgiL

A C O R N. — G L A N S.

THE OAK TREE.— QUERCUS. In Botany, of the Monoecia Potyandria Class.

THE acorn, which is the fruit or nut of the oak tree, was the food of the ancient Britons, and particularly of the Druids, who, says the historian, lived in caves and hollow trees; their food was acorns and berries, and their drink, water. The name of Druid seems to be taken from the Greek word tyuV, an oak. They thought whatever grew on the oak was sent from heaven, and nothing was held so sacred by them as the mistletoe of an oak ; and they believed it to be the favourite tree of the Deity.

Content with food, which nature freely bred, On wildings and on strawberries they fed ; Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest, -And falling acorns furnished out a feast. — Ovid.

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Acorns were not the food of the Britons only. The inhabitants of Chios (in ancient times) held out a long siege, having no other food but acorns.

Acorns are eaten to this day in Spain, where they long remained a delicacy at the desserts. Cervantes often mentions them in his Don Quixote ; but the Spanish acorns are certainly of a sweeter nature than those of England.

In times of scarcity and dearth of corn, they have been ground and baked into bread, both in this country and in France ; but the taste of it is rough and disagreeable, and indeed acorns are said to be hard of diges- tion, and to cause head-aches and flatulence. The study of botany, and the encourage- ment given to agricultural and horticultural pursuits, have so wonderfully improved the state of this country, that what in early ages a king would have feasted on, the beggar now refuses; and the acorn is scarcely known as affording nourishment to the hu- man species, even among the wandering vagrants who pitch their tattered tents, and cook their scanty fare beneath the branches of the trees that produce them.

Should there remain any persons so igno- rantly obstinate, as to exclaim against the

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study of botany as useless and uninteresting, let their plentiful desserts be furnished with a scanty supply of acorns, and their wine be exchanged for the beverage of their fore- fathers; and soon would they join in the praise of this science, and of all those who have given their time and talent to improve the health, and add to the luxuries of man, by this interesting and beneficial study, which, next % to astronomy, carries our thoughts to heaven, and causes us to join the Psalmist in his exclamation, " O Lord, how wonderful are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all."

Before the Conquest, the wealds of Sussex (which is the largest valley in Europe) were one continued forest from Hampshire to Kent, principally of oak trees, that were only valued for the number of swine which the acorns maintained.

Acorns are but little used at present, except to fatten hogs and deer; they are sometimes given to poultry, and would be found an advantageous food for fowls, were they dried and ground into meal.

In medicine, a decoction of acorns is re- puted good against dysenteries and colics. Pliny states, that acorns beaten to powder, and mixed with hog's lard and salt, heal

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all hard swellings, and cancerous ulcers; and when reduced into a liniment, and applied, stay the bloody flux.

Every part of the oak is styptic, binding, and useful in all kinds of fluxes and bleed- ings, either inwardly or outwardly; the bark is frequently used in gargarisms, for the re- laxation of the uvula, and for sore mouths arid throats. An extract made from the bark is said by some to be equal to the Peruvian bark. — Chambers.

The gall nuts of the oak, are of many kinds, but they have all the same medicinal virtue. I learn from Pliny that they were used by the Romans to colour their hair black.

John Ellis, Esq. discovered that acorns can be preserved in a state fit for vegetation for a whole year, by enveloping them in bees wax : other seeds may be conveyed from distant countries, by the same means.

The ancients thought, that of all trees, the oak was made first; and that among men, the Arcadians were born first; and that is the reason why they were compared to the oak.

It seems that in ancient times, the oak tree was not venerated by the Heathens only, as it appears there were oak trees in the

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temple of the true God, for the Bible in- forms us that Joshua " wrote the command- ments and the precepts of the Lord, in the book of the law, and that he took a very great stone, which he put under an oak, which was in the sanctuary of the Lord."

In the Valley of Mamre, which was in the beautiful country of the tribe of Judea, where Abraham was visited by the angels who announced to him the birth of Isaac, stood an oak, that became celebrated as the tree under which Abraham often went to re- pose and refresh himself. Bayle says, that this oak was said to have existed under the emperor Constantius.

It was an oak that caused the death of the son of David in the battle of the wood of Ephraim : " And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth : and the mule that was under him went away/*

A periwig-maker in the town of Lewes, in Sussex, made use of this story to recom- mend the sale of false hair. He had a sign painted on the front of his shop, represent- ing the rebellious son of David hanging in the

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oak by the hair of his head, with this whimsi* cal couplet below :

O Absalom! unhappy sprig,

Thou should'st have worn a periwig.

It was an oak-tree also which cost Milo of Crotona, the most celebrated wrestler of Greece, and who was always the conqueror in the games, his life. He possessed pro- digious strength. It is related that he held a pomegranate in his hand so firmly, without smashing or hurting the fruit, that no person could open his fingers strait, so as to take it from him. He would put his naked foot on a quoit, greased with oil, and whatever effort was made, it was impossible to shake him. His confidence in his (almost super- natural) strength was fatal to him, for having once found in his way an old oak-tree, nearly opened by wedges, which had been forced by the hatchet and hammer, he un- dertook to finish the felling of it, by the power of his arms alone; but in the effort he undid the wedges, and his hands wrere caught by the two parts of the oak, which joining together again, he was unable to liberate himself, and was devoured by the wolves.

The famous forest of Dodona, in Epirus,

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consisted of oaks that were consecrated -to Jupiter: this was one of the most ancient oracles of which we have any particular account. Herodotus gives two accounts of the rise of this oracle, one of which clears up the mystery of the fable, viz. that some Phoenician merchants carried off a priestess of Thebes into Greece, where she took up her residence in the forest of Dodona, and there, at the foot of an old oak, erected a small chapel in honour of Jupiter, whose priestess she had been at Thebes; and this was the first temple that was ever seen in Greece. Suidas informs us that the answer was given by an oak. Homer has also de- livered the same account; and as it was generally believed to proceed from the trunk, it is easy to conceive that the priestess had nothing more to do than to hide herself in the hollow of this oak, and from thence to give the pretended sense of the oracle, for the distance the suppliants were obliged to keep was an effectual means to prevent the cheat from being discovered. During the war between the Thracians and Boeotians, the latter sent deputies to consult this oracle of Dodona, when the priestess gave them this answer, of which she doubtless did not foresee the consequence, " If you would

c

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meet with success, you must be guilty of some impious action/' The deputies sus- pecting that she prevaricated with them in order to serve their enemies, from whom she was descended, resolved to fulfil the decree of the oracle; and therefore seized the priestess and burnt her alive, alleging, that this act was justifiable in whatever light it was considered ; that if she intended to deceive them, it was fit she should be pu- nished for the deceit ; or, if she was sincere, they had only literally fulfilled the sense of the oracle.

On Mount Lycaeus, in Arcadia, vras a temple of Jupiter with a fountain : when rain was wanted, it was thought that it would be obtained of the god by throwing in the fountain a branch of the oak-tree.

Socrates swore by the oak, perhaps because this tree was consecrated to Jupiter.

There was an oak near Priene, a city of Ionia, near which a thousand Samians were killed by the Priennians. From thence came the custom that the women of Priene had to swear by the darkness of the oak, because they had lost, in this place, their fathers, their hus- bands, and their sons.

The veneration that the ancients had for the oak, gave rise to the Greek and Latin

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proverb, " Speak to the oak;" which signified, speak in good security. They had also an- other proverb on the oak : when they spoke of persons they did not know the birth of, it was said they were born of an oak, because the ancients often exposed children in the hol- low of trees.

Lucan compares Pompey to an old oak, hung with superb trophies.

The oak is a tree of slow growth, requir- ing a century before it will arrive to its full perfection. Pliny, in his Natural History, states, that hard by the city of Ilium, there were oaks near the tomb of Ilius, which were planted from acorns when Troy was first called Ilium. He also says, " the great forest Hercynia is full of large oaks, that have never been topped or lopped." " It is sup- posed/' adds this naturalist, " that they have been there since the creation of the world, and (in regard to their immortality) surmount- ing all miracles whatever. The roots of these trees run and spread so far within the ground that they meet each other, in which encounter they make such resistance, that they swell and rise upwards to a great height, in the form of arches/' In some instances, he says, they were so high and so large that a

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whole troop of horsemen could ride upright through these natural portals, in order of battle.

Linnaeus mentions fourteen species of the oak-tree; Miller extended them to twenty; and Aiton describes forty-five va- rieties of this tree. The most common of the English oak produces the acorns close to the branches, without any stalk ; but the most esteemed for ship building is found growing in the Wealds of Sussex and Kent ; and this tree often produces its acorns with foot stalks as long as the cherry stalk. Young says, " Oak is the staple commodity of Sussex, which, from the remotest antiquity, has been celebrated for the growth of oak ; it is esti- mated that not less than from 170 or 180,000 acres are occupied by this timber, the qua- lity of which is acknowledged by navy con- tractors preferring, and in all their agree- ments stipulating for, Sussex oak. This author adds, that the soil is so naturally adapted to the growth of oak, that if a field were sown with furze only, and the cattle kept out, the ground would, in a few years, be covered with young oaks, without trouble or expense of planting.

Although the late long war has, in some

degree, thinned this country of oak-trees, still we have many oaks left of extraordinary great age and bulk, and

the sturdy oak,

A prince's refuge once, th* eternal guard Of England's throne, by sweating peasants felPd, Stems the vast main, and bears tremendous war To distant nations, or with sovereign sway Awes the divided world to peace and love.

Phillips.

The celebrated oak in Hainault Forest, Essex, known by the name of Fairlop, is thus mentioned by the late Rev. Mr. Gilpin : " The tradition of the country/' says this ingenious writer, " traces it half way up the Christian era. It is still a noble tree, though it has suffered greatly from the depredations of time. About a yard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem is thirty-six feet in circumference, it divides into eleven vast arms, which overspread an area of three hundred feet in circuit : beneath this shade an annual fair has long been held on the 2d of July; but no booth is suffered to be erected beyond the extent of its boughs."

In Bloomfield wood, near Ludlow, in Shropshire, is an oak-tree belonging to Lord Powis, the trunk of which, in 1765, measured sixty-eight feet in girth, thirty-two in length,

and which, reckoning ninety feet for the larger branches, contained in the whole 1,455 feet of timber, round measure, or twenty-nine loads and five feet, at fifty feet to a load.

In the vale of Gloucestershire, near the turnpike road between Cheltenham and Tewksbury, stands the Baddington oak, the stem of whose trunk is fifty-four feet, and some of its branches extend to eight yards from the body of the tree.

The famous oak, Robur Britannicum, in Lord Norrey's Park, at Prescot, was com- puted to be able to shelter between three and four thousand men. Dr. Plot, in his Oxfordshire, tells us of an oak near Clifton, that spread eighty-one feet from bough-end to bough-end, and shaded 560 square yards.

In Worksop Park, the Duke of Norfolk had an oak which spread almost 3,000 square yards, and near 1,000 horse might stand under the shade.

I have been favoured with the particular dimensions of the large oak that was felled on the Gelin's estate, in the parish of Bassaley, and within four miles of the town of New- port, in the county ofMonmouth, in 1810, as communicated by the Earl of Stamford to Sir Joseph Banks,

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Body of the tree, ten feet long 450 ft.

Twelve limbs and collateral parts, contained 1850 Dead limbs - 126

2426 ft. or

48 loads and 26 ft. — Quantity of bark, 65 cwt. and 16 stacks of wood.

Four men were three weeks and two days in felling and stripping the tree. There were 85 pieces of square or hewn timber: the squarers were three weeks and four days in squaring it. One pair of sawyers had been five months in sawing the tree, and had not finished when this account was sent. (Mar. 6th, 1811.)

The tree was purchased by Mr. Thomas Harrison for one hundred guineas.

Part of an oak-tree, twenty-feet in cir- cumference, was drawn out of the Thames in September, 1815, near the Ferry at Twick- enham, with great difficulty, by twenty-four horses : it is known to have laid in the river one hundred and fifty years.

The timber of the oak-tree is so well known, and so justly esteemed, for a variety of purposes, that it would be superfluous to state the whole of them.

In building ships of war, one great advan- tage is, that it seldom splinters, which caused foreigners to attribute our naval vie-

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lories to the excellency of our timber ; but the late war has given so many proofs of our defeating our enemies with ships of their own building, that they must now acknowledge that the bravery of a British sailor is as firm as the heart of an English oak.

It was not until we had manufactured into furniture all the curious woods of the New World, that the transcendent splendor of the English oak was brought to any degree of perfection by the late Mr. Bullock, of Tenterden-street, and other eminent cabinet- makers. Mr. Penning, of Holies-street, Ca- vendish-square, who I am informed has been the most successful in the choice of this wood, has lately wrought up some old oak- trees of such matchless beauty, that one set of dining-tables brought him the unheard-of price of six hundred pounds. This far ex- ceeds any thing of the kind we read of, even in the luxurious days of the Romans, although Pliny says, " Our wives at home twit us, their husbands, for our expensive tables, when we seem to find fault with their costly pearls/'

" There is at this day to be seen, "says this author, " a board of citron wood, belonging formerly to M. Tullius Cicero, which cost him ten thousand sesterces; a strange cir-

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cumstance, as he was not rich." He also mentions a table that belonged to Gallus Asinius, \vhich sold for eleven thousand ses- terces, which is about equal to ^70 of our money; and he particularizes a table of citron-wood that came from Ptolemaeus, king of Mauritania, which was made in two demi- rounds, or half circles, joined together so cleverly, that the joints could not be disco- vered : the diameter of it was four feet and a half, and three inches in thickness. It is related that they set great store on woods of curious grains: some there are mentioned with curling veins, which were called tigrin<z (tiger tables) ; others, panthernce (panther) ; and some are described waved like the sea, and spotted like the peacock's tail. But those of the highest value were of the colour of honey-wine, with shining and glittering veins, or lamprey-veined, running across.

I have ventured to make this digression, having seen within these last few years oak of such various grains, that out of them the whole of the above-mentioned, and many other curious representations, might have been selected.

The bark of the oak-tree is a most valu- able article for the purpose of tanning ; and it is by the aid of this bark, that our English

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gardeners are able to supply us with pine- apples, and other fruits peculiar to the hot- test climates.

The oak principally used for wainscot, &c., is brought from Dantzic and Norway.

The evergreen oak (ilex) is a native of the south of Europe, and is planted merely to ornament our gardens and plantations : this variety was introduced into England in 1581, and is found to grow in great perfection on the banks of the Thames, west of London. There is an oak of this description in the grounds belonging to the Bishop of London's palace at Fulham, more than fifty feet high, and eight feet in circumference. I conclude it was planted by Bishop Compton, who in- troduced many new plants and forest trees from North America and other parts of the world.

APRICOT.--ARMENIACA;

Or, PRJECOCIA MALA.

In Botany, of the Class Icosandria Monogynia.

THE apricot has long been considered, and in most botanical works stated, to be a na- tive of Epirus ; and the name of pruneus Armeniaca having been given to it in mis- take, and which I shall shew belonged to another fruit, it has been transmitted down from one author to another, without particular inquiry. Theophrastus, one of the oldest authors, never mentions the apricot- tree as being cultivated in Greece, at the time when he lived : on the contrary, he alludes to it as an exotic, from an account transmitted to him : he also mentions the almond, as being the only tree in his country which produced the flowers before the leaves. (Theoph. Hist. Plant, lib. vii. c. 12.)

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Columella is the oldest Roman author who has mentioned the tree that has been considered the apricot. He writes, that at the end of January we may graft the cherry- tree, the Armenian plum, the nectarine, the almond, the peach-tree, and others which plush early.

Pliny also mentions the Armenian plum ; and says there is a plum, a kind of apricot, brought from a foreign nation, and which is called Armeniaca, and is desirable for its smell. This great naturalist has particularly men- tioned the apricot, as distinct from the Arme- nian plum : he states that it was not known above thirty years before he wrote the account, which would make its introduction into Italy about the sixtieth year of the Christian era. Pliny says, " at its first coming, each sold for a Roman denier :" he adds, " this fruit is harm- less, and is in such request among invalids, that thirty sesterces are given for one of them, which is as great a price as is given for any fruit whatever/' " We have," continues he, " two sorts, supernatia, which we have from the high countries, and, namely, the Sabines ; and popularia, which grow common every where/' Thus Pliny has furnished us with an account of the apricot, and omitted to men- tion from whence it was first procured.

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M. L. Legnier has made some remarks on this subject, which appeared in the French Encyclopedic, for November, 1815. Here he says, " I was struck with its mode of growth in Egypt, where it was anciently brought from latitudes still more southern. In Egyot it', leaves have scarcely fallen off before tiA soms appear again. The name of berikoi first given to it even in Greece, apprj .lies very near to its Arabian name of I °kach, or berikach." M. L. Legnier adds, " that the inhabitants of the Deserts called Oasis, gather and dry large quantities of apricots, which they bring down to Egypt for sale ; and they are there called michmich." " The result of every inquiry I made/' says this author, " was, that the apricot-tree grows there spontane- ously, almost without cultivation; and as it is not known to grow in the natural state in any part of Armenia, we may very justly conclude that it is an Arabian fruit."

The apricot-tree was first brought to Eng- land from Italy, in the year 1524, by Woolf, gardener of Henry the Eighth, who it ap- pears introduced several valuable fruits about the same period. (Gough's British Topo- graphy, vol. i. page 133.)

We have now considerable varieties of this agreeable fruit, many of which, by their

30

names, inform us from whence they were procured, as the Algier, the Roman, the Turkey, the Brede, and the Brussels apricot, besides the Muscadine, the Orange, and se- veral new varieties. It is one of our earliest wall-fruits, as well as one in the highest esti- plush ea^

PThe young fruit which is gathered to thin a^the ayop, makes an excellent tart; and, when ripe, it is second to no fruit for preserves or jam.

The apricot-tree produces its blossom buds not only on the last year's wood, but also on the curzons, or spurs, from the two years' old wood. Great care should be used, in pruning, not to injure them; and it is advisable to remove all foreright shoots in the growing time.

The Brussels apricot is the best as a stan- dard tree: they are all propagated, by graft- ing them on plum stocks.

Madame de Genlis relates the following 'anecdote, which cannot be translated so as to retain the wit, which depends on the agree- ment of the French name for apricot-tree with the inscription alluded to.

Apr&s la mort de Louis XIze, au com- mencement de la regence de Madame de Beaujeu, plusieurs personnes furent disgra-

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ciees ; entre autres, Cotier, premier medecin clu feu roi, qui s'applaudissant d'etre echappe de cette cour orageuse, fit sculpter sur la porte de sa maison un abricotier avec cette inscription :

A Tabri, Cotier.

ALMOND— AM YGDALUS.

/

The Name of a Genus of Trees, of the Jco- sandria Monogynia Class.

THAT the almond-tree is a native of Syria and Arabia, we have the authority of the ear- liest writers.

Jacob mentions almonds among the best fruits of the land of Canaan, when he says to his sons, " Take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds/' By the miracle of Aaron's rod, we learn that this tree was growing in the wilderness— " the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and blossomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." The Israelites did not use the same orna- mental statuary that adorned the heathen temples, but copied the fruits and flowers

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of their country, where they admitted em- bellishment. The almond was selected to beautify the candlesticks for the tabernacle, which were made of pure gold, of beaten work : " Three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower : and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower ; so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick. And in the six candlesticks were four bowls made like almonds, his knops, and his flowers/'

Theophrastus, who wrote about 300 years before Christ, mentions the almond as the only tree in Greece that produced the blos- soms before the leaves. Servius relates the traditionary tale of Phyllis's being changed by the gods into an almond-tree, which was called phylla by the Greeks. Some days after this metamorphosis, Demophoon her lover revisited Thrace, of which Phyllis was queen : and when he heard of the fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree, which, though at that time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if still sensible of his tenderness and love.

The almond tree was not cultivated in Italy in the time of Cato, who calls the fruit, nuces Grcecce, or Greek nuts.

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The Jordan almond-tree was first planted in England, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, 1548 (Hortus Kez&ensis). Lord Bacon, whose Natural History was written some years after this time, mentions it among the trees that blossom earliest, and whose fruit ripens latest: and which he accounts for as being a tree that hath much oily moisture. He recom- mends almond butter as an excellent nou- risher to those that are weak ; as also the oil of almonds, newly drawn, with sugar and a little spice, spread upon toasted bread, as a nourishing diet.

The Jordan almonds are the most es- teemed for the table, and are named after the river Jordan, so celebrated in the Old Testament, and from whence they were first procured : these almonds, when taken in moderation, are wholesome, being cooling, healing, emollient, and nutritive: they are much prescribed in emulsions, and are found of good effect in all disorders from choleric and acrimonious humours.

The oil of almonds is principally drawn from the Valentian and Barbary almonds, and is well known for its medicinal qualities.

Bitter almonds were considered by the an- cients as of use to take off drunkenness. Plutarch relates that Drusus's physician,

35

who was a great drinker, took at every cup five bitter almonds, to allay the heat and fumes of the wine. The bitter almonds are held aperient, detersive, and diuretic; they are therefore recommended in obstructions of the liver, spleen, &c. Pliny states, that a decoction of the roots of the bitter almond- tree supples the skin, prevents wrinkles, and gives a fresh, cheerful colour to the coun- tenance ; and that bitter almonds cause sleep, and create appetite. They were considered a cure for chilblains, as well as the bite of a mad dog.

Neumann states, that these almonds are poisonous to birds, and all animals that come into the world blind. The Bohemians are said to bruise them, and to throw them where fowls frequent, which will stupify those that eat them, so that they are easily taken by the hand. The bitter almonds are more generally used for culinary purposes, and for flavouring cordials, &c.

As an ornamental tree, the almond de- serves to be more generally cultivated in our shrubberies, and particularly as a foreground to clumps of evergreens in parks and planta- tions, which have a sombre appearance to- wards the spring, that would be much relieved by the beautiful pink flowers of the almond-

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tree, that give a gaiety to the plantations in March and April, a season when no other trees are in blossom. In favourable seasons, the fruit often comes to good perfection in this country; but these almonds will not keep so well as those produced in warmer climates.

APPLE-TREE.-MALUS.

In Botany, a Species of the Pyrus, belonging to the Genus of Icosandria Pentagynia.

THAT the apple-tree Is a native of the Eastern part of the world, we have the au- thority of the earliest writers, both in the Sacred History, as well as by the information given by the naturalists of ancient Greece and Rome. The Prophet Joel, where he declareth the destruction of the fruits of the earth by a long drought, mentions the fruits which were held in estimation, and among them he names the apple-tree.

" The Greeks call them medica" says Pliny, " after the country from whence they were first brought in old times." Others were called epirotica, from Epirus, their native country ; and that these were the same species of fruit that we call apples at this time, there can be no doubt ; as they are

38

described in Pliny's Natural History as a fruit that hath a tender skin to be pared off; and he mentions crabs and wildings as being smaller; " and for their harsh sourness, they have/' says he, " many a foul word and shrewd curse given them."

Apple-trees, from the earliest accounts, seem to iiave required the fostering care of man. Of all the fruit-trees in Italy, Pliny says the apple is the tenderest, and least able to bear heat or cold, particularly the early kind that produces the sweet Jennitings. For a long time the apple-tree was of the highest value among fruit-trees with the Romans: " there are many apple-trees/' says Pliny, "in the villages near Rome that let for the yearly sum of 2,000 sesterces/' which is equal to £lc2. 10s. of our money; "and some of them," says this author, "yield more profit to the owner than a small farm, and which brought about the invention of grafting. There are apples that have ennobled the countries from whence they came; and many apples have immortalized their first founders and inventors. Our best apples," continues he, " will honour the first grafters for ever; such as took their names from Matius, Ces- tius, Manlius, and Claudius." Pliny parti- cularizes the quince apples, that came from

39

a quince grafted upon an apple stock, which he says, smell like the quince, and were called Appiana, after Appius, who was of the Claudian House, and who was the first that practised this grafting. " Some apples/' says Pliny, " are so red that they resemble blood, which is caused by their being at first grafted upon a mulberry stock ;" but of all the apples he has mentioned, he says the one which took its name from Petisius, who reared it in his time, was the most excellent for eating, both on account of its sweetness and agreeable flavour. He mentions nine-and-twenty kinds of apples as being cultivated in Italy at about the com* mencement of the Christian era. The graft- ing of trees was carried to its greatest extent about this time. " I have seen," says Pliny, " near to Thulise, in the Tyburtines country, a tree grafted and laden with all manner of fruits, one bough, bearing nuts, another berries ; here hung grapes, there figs ; in one part you might see pears, in another pome- granates; and, to conclude, no kind of apple or other fruit but there it was to be found : but this tree did not live long/' Mo- dern grafters will condemn this account as fabulous or exaggerated ; but what reason can we have to doubt the authority of a

40

man, whose life was spent to the benefit of mankind, and whose death was caused by his perseverance in the research after truth in the wonderful works of nature?

Sextus Papinius, it is said, brought two kinds of apples to Rome, in the 21st year of the reign of Augustus Caesar : the one called Jujubes, out of Syria ; the other, Tuberes, he brought from Africa ; but their fruit, accord- ing to Pliny's account, rather resembled ber- ries than apples.

The Wild Crab is the only apple indi- genous to this country; and it is on this stock that most of our valuable apples have been grafted and raised by the ingenuity of the gardeners, who have, by sowing the seeds and studying the soil, so improved and multiplied the variety of this most excellent fruit, that it has now become of great national importance, affording an agreeable and whole- some diet, in a thousand shapes, to all classes of society.

It was not until the 16th year of the reign of Henry the VHIth, that Pippins were first introduced into England, by Leo- nard Maschal, who, in Fuller's words, " brought them from over sea," and planted them at Plumstead, in Sussex, a small village on the north side of the South Downs, near

41

the Devil's Dyke. Maschal brought the first carp to England, and thus, at orie time, fur- nished our orchards and our ponds with the rarest variety of each kind.

The Golden Pippin is a native of Sussex, and is said to have been first reared at Par- ham Park, which is also situated on the north side of the South Downs. The Dutch ac- knowledge it to be an English apple in their catalogue of fruits, where it is called the " Engelsche goud Pepping." The French call it " Pippin d'Or/' which is a translation of the English name.

Catherine, Empress of Russia, was so fond of this apple, that she was regularly supplied with it from England ; and in order that she might have it in the greatest perfection, each apple was separately enveloped in silver paper before it was packed.

The Ribston Pippin is a native of Rib- ston Park, Yorkshire. Hargrave, in his History of Knaresborough, (p. 216,) says, " This place is remarkable for the produce of a delicious apple, called the Ribston Park Pippin. The original tree was raised from a Pippin brought from France, from which tree such numbers have been propagated, that they are now to be met with in almost every orchard in this and many other coun-

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ties/' The old tree is yet standing ; and in the year 1787 produced six bushels of fruit. Mr. Speedily says, he has seen the tree within these last few years, and that it was without decay, or any indication of dissolu- tion.

Hargrave adds, " This fruit still retains it's value, being preferred before every other apple this country produces/' While my namesake of Herefordshire says, —

Let every tree in every garden own

The Redstreak as supreme ; whose pulpous fruit

With gold irradiate, and vermilion, shines

Tempting, not fatal, as the birth of that

Primeval interdicted plant, that won

Fond Eve in hapless hour to taste, and die.

This, of more bounteous influence, inspires

Poetic raptures, and the lowly Muse

Kindles to loftier strains ; even I perceive

Her sacred virtue. See ! the numbers flow

Easy, whilst, cheer'd with her nectareous juice,

Her's and my country's praises I exalt.

Hail, Herefordian plant, that dost disdain

All other fields ! Heav'n's sweetest blessing, hail!

Be thou the copious matter of my song,

And thy choice, nectar ! on which always waits

Laughter, and Sport, and care-beguiling Wit,

And Friendship, chief delight of human life.

What should we wish for more ? Or why, in quest

Of foreign vintage, insincere, and mixt,

Traverse th' extremest world ? Why tempt the rage

Of the rough ocean, when our native glebe

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Imparts from bounteous womb annual recruits Of wine delectable, that far surmounts Gallic or Latin grapes, or those that see The setting sun near Calpe's tow'ring height. Nor let the Rhodian nor the Lesbian vines Vaunt their rich must, nor let Tokay contend For sovereignty ; Phanaeus' self must bow To th' Ariconian vales.

Gerard, who wrote his History of Plants about seventy years after the introduction of Pippins, has given no account of this va- riety of the apple. He describes but seven kinds : the Pome Water, the Baker-ditch apple — the king of apples, the Quining, or queen of apples, the Summer Pearmain, the Winter Pearmain, and the Paradise apple. In his descriptions of apples, he says, " The fruit of apples do differ in greatness, forme, colour and taste; some covered with a red skin, others yellow or greene, varying infinitely according to the soyle and climate; some very great, some little, and many of a middle sort ; some are sweet of taste, or something sour; most be of a middle taste, betweene sweet and sour; the which to distinguish, I think it impossible, not- withstanding I heare of one that intendeth to write a peculiar volume of apples, and the use jf them/' This author continues,

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" The tame and grafted apple-trees are planted and set in gardens and orchards made for that purpose: they delight to grow in good and fertile grounds. Kent doth abound with apples of most sorts ; but I have seen in the pastures and hedge rows, about the grounds of a worshipful gentleman dwelling two miles from Hereford, called M. Roger Bodnome, so many trees of all sortes, that the seruants drink for the most part no other drinke, but that which is made of apples. The quantitie is such, that by the report of the gentleman himselfe, the parson hath for tithe many hogsheads of cyder/'

" Like as .there be divers manured apples, so is there sundry wilde apples, or Crabs, not husbanded, that is not grafted. We have in our London gardens, (Gerard's gar- den was in Holborn) a dwarfe kind of sweet apple called the Paradise apple, which beareth apples very timely without grafting." From this account we may conclude, that the Pippin apples were still rare, or that they had not been cultivated out of Sussex, al- though I find Gerard must have seen the fruit of the Pippin kind, for in his account of the Pomum Amoris, or Love Apple, he says it is the bigness of a goose egg or a large Pippin. The Pippin appears' to have

45

been scarce even in the time of Charles the First; for in the valuation of the fruit-trees at the royal gardens of his queen at Wim- bleton, there is only one Pippin-tree men- tioned.

For some years past, it has been stated by several ingenious writers, that many of our best varieties of apples could no longer be cultivated with success; that by length of time they have become degenerated and worn out. Mr. Knight, the president of the Horticultural Society, seems to have been the first that gave birth to this idea. He says, in his Pomona Herefordiensis, that those apples which have been long cultivated are on the decay. The Redstreak and the Golden Pippin, can no longer be propa- gated with advantage. The fruit, like* the parent tree, is affected by the debilitated old age of the variety. Again he says, in his Treatise on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, page 6, " the Moil, and its suc- cessful rival the Redstreak, with the Must and Golden Pippin, are in the last stage of decay, and the Stire and Foxwhelp are hastening rapidly after them/' " It is much to be regretted/' says Speedily, " that this apparently visionary notion of the extinction of certain kinds of apples should have been

46

promulgated by authors of respectability, since the mistake will, for a time at least, be productive of several ill consequences/'

Having observed among the apples in Covent-Garden market, last year, a great quantity of the real Golden Pippin in a per- fect state, I was induced to make particular inquiries respecting this fruit; and have re- ceived satisfactory accounts from all quarters, that these trees are fast recovering from a dis- ease, or canker, which appears to have been brought on by a succession of unpropitious seasons; but that the summer of 1818, and the following year, have greatly improved them.

When I had decided to publish this His- tory of Fruits, I waited on some gentlemen who are well known in all parts of the world for their practical knowledge in the culti- vation of apples. Mr. Hugh Ronalds, jun. of Brentford, informed me that he had lately seen a tree of the Golden Pippin kind, which had been planted against a wall in a south aspect, which was in a thriving condition, and the fruit in a perfect state. Mr. Ro- nalds, sen. assured me it was the true Golden Pippin, and that there is no fear of losing this variety.

Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, who politely

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showed me a variety of 500 kinds of apple- trees, was decidedly of opinion that the ap- parent decay of some trees was owing to the unfavourable springs we have had for several years.

Mr. Knight, of the King's Road, Chelsea, has also favoured me with his opinion, which perfectly agrees with that of Mr. Ronalds and Mr. Lee. Mr. Knight added, that if this spring and summer should be as favorable as the two last seasons, he should be able to show me this and other old varieties of the apple-tree in as perfect a state as they have ever been known.

Mr. Knight, the ingenious president of the Horticultural Society, I conclude had watched these trees during the unfavourable wet seasons we have had from the commence- ment of the present century, and finding the disease increase, he attributed it to the old age of the varieties ; for, as the great friend of Pomona, his object evidently was to en- courage the obtaining and cultivation of new kinds, to replace those which he appre- hended would be lost to the country. I have made this digression, to prevent if possible our best apples from being stigmatized as a decaying fruit and unprofitable to the grafter, which would be the cause of their

48

becoming scarce, and, in time, totally lost. I have not presumed to set my judgment in opposition to that of Mr. Knight, who is so justly celebrated for his attention to horticultural pursuits; but it behoves all who may write of this most valuable fruit, to recommend the graftings to be of the best kinds, and to throw out no hint that may cause our nurserymen to neglect it's propa- gation. Gerard, when he published his Ac- count of the Apple in 1597, was a warm advocate for the cultivation of appjes. " Gentlemen that have land and living/' says he, " put forward, in the name of God; graffe, set, plant, and nourish up trees in euery corner of your grounds ; the labour is small, the cost is nothing, the commoditie is great, your selues shall have plentie, the poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessitie, and God shall reward your good mindes and diligence/'

Herefordshire has now to boast of a friend to Pomona in Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. who has, for some years past, been benefit- ing his country, by creating, if I may be allowed the expression, a new variety of fruits; but before I disclose the ingenious method he has adopted to procure new varieties, it is but justice to departed merit

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to notice with whom the invention was first deemed possible : and I have great pride and satisfaction in stating, that, after an unpre- judiced research, I find this wonderful dis- covery has been left for the perseverance of the English, who, although late in taking up botanical studies, have now surpassed what- ever was done by the ancient world in this science.

Lord Bacon, who has been called the Prophet of Arts, and who looked into nature with a most curious eye of inquiry, evidently suspected that it was possible to cross the breed of plants, and so procure kinds, by art, as novel as those which nature has sometimes produced by accident.

" We see/' says the great Verulam, " that in living creatures that have male and female, there is copulation of several kinds, and so compounded creatures; as the mule that is generated betwixt the horse and the ass; and some other compounds which we call monsters.

" The compounding or mixture of kinds in plants is not found out ; which never- theless, if it be possible, is more at command than that of living creatures; wherefore it were one of the most notable experiments touching plants to find it out, for so you

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may have great variety of new fruits, and flowers yet unknown. Grafting does it not :" adds this great man ; " that mendeth the fruit, or doubleth the flowers, &c. ; but it hath not the power to make a new kind, for the scion ever overrule th the stock/'

Bradley, whose works were published in 1718, about a century after those of Lord Bacon, is the first author who wrote on this subject as being accomplished ; but the exact method was not then clearly un- derstood, as he only describes it by bringing the branches of different trees together when in blossom ; but, on this hint, the gardeners in Holland and the Netherlands practised before it was much attended to in this coun- try, where the discovery was made and pub- lished ; but, to do them justice, they have the honour to acknowledge they owe the art to the English.

It now appears to have reached its highest perfection ; and I shall proceed to relate the manner in which Mr. Knight has so successfully produced new varieties of apples and other fruits ; and although he has most clearly explained himself, yet I have thought it advisable to elucidate it more plainly by plates from drawings, which I have made from the blossoms for the ex-

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press purpose, knowing how little even the botanical terms are understood by the far- mers, and many gardeners in the country.

Mr. Knight, in his Pomona Herefordien- sis, says, " It is necessary to contrive that the two trees from which you intend to raise the new kind, should blossom at the same time ; therefore if one is an earlier sort than the other, it must be retarded by shading, or brought into a cooler situation, and the latest forwarded by a warm wall or a sunny situa- tion, so as to procure the blossoms at the same period/'

The apple blossom contains about twenty stamina or males, which are represented in Plate I. No. 3. and generally five pointals or females, which form the centre of the cup or cavity of the blossom, as in Figure No. 4. The males stand in a circle, just within the bases of the petals, or flower leaves, and are formed of slender threads, each of which terminates in a small yellow ball or anther, as in Fig. 5. As soon as the blossoms are nearly full grown, as in Fig. 1 . they must be carefully opened, and all the male stamina cut or extracted, so as not to injure the pointals or females, which will then appear as in Fig. 4. The blossoms are then closed again, as in Fig. 1. and suffered to

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remain till they open spontaneously. From the blossoms of the tree, which it is pro- posed to make the male parent of the future variety, must be taken a portion of their pollen or farina, when ready to fall from the mature anthers, and deposited upon the pointals of the blossoms, which consequently will afford seed. By shaking the blossoms over a sheet of white paper, you will ascer- tain when the pollen is ready. It is neces- sary in this experiment, to cover the branches on which the prepared blossoms are, with a thin muslin or gauze, so as not to touch the flowers, or keep off the sun or air, but to pre- vent the bees or other insects from inocula- ting them with the pollen of other blossoms, which would make the experiment uncertain; and in order to obtain the fruit and the seeds of a large size, it is best to leave but few blossoms on the tree, and, at all events, to clear the branches on which the prepared flowers are, from all other blossoms. When the fruit is quite ripe, the pips or seeds should be sown at a proper season, and in suitable soil, and in about four or six years fruit may be expected. Mr. Knight has also made some curious experiments between the peach and the almond, which will be found in the account of the former fruit.

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Among the new apples which the world have to thank Mr. Knight for, is the Grange apple, which fruited first in 1802, and ob- tained the prize of the Herefordshire Agri- cultural Society : it is the offspring of the Orange Pippin and the Golden Pippin. He also obtained the annual premium of the same society, in 1807, for the Siberian Har- vey, an apple which fruited for the first time in that year. This tree was raised from the seed of the Yellow Siberian Crab and the pollen of the Golden Harvey. Mr. Knight also raised the Fox ley apple, from the seed of the yellow Siberian Crab and the pollen of the Orange Pippin : this fruit also received the premium in 1808, and it is said to rival the Golden Pippin in sweetness.

The cultivation of this, our most valuable fruit, has been attended to with so much care of late years, that one of our great gardeners, (Mr. Hugh Ronalds, of Brent- ford,) exhibited at the Horticultural Society, in August, 1818, sixteen varieties of apples, and in September he exhibited fifty-eight other sorts, all grown in his own garden, and considered the finest collection ever exhibited. In the month of October of the same year, he exhibited fifty-three sorts, making in the whole a variety of 127 kinds

54

of this our staple fruit, which, in point of real value, takes place of all others, and affords a variety for all seasons of the year, both for the dessert and for culinary purposes, as well as the drink of which Phillips in Miltonian verse has sung, —

Some ciders have, by art or age, unlearn'd Their genuine relish, and of sundry vines Assum'd the flavour; one sort counterfeits The sparkling nectar of Champagne; with that, A German oft has swill'd his throat, and sworn, Deluded, that imperial Rhine bestow'd The gen'rous rummer, whilst the owner, pleas'd, Laughs inly at his guest, thus entertain'd With foreign vintage from his cider cask.

Thomson has thus beautifully described the cider season : —

The fragrant stores, the wide projected heaps Of apples, which the lusty-handed year, Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard shakes; A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen, • Dwells in their gelid pores ; and, active, points The piercing cider for the thirsty tongue.

Apple- wine is admired as a summer be- verage, but it is by no means equal to the cider made from Golden Pippins, which, when given in good condition, and well timed, surpasses every other refreshing drink. The spirit extracted from cider is equal to

55

brandy for preserving fruit, or mixing ia made wines or liquors.

A solution of iron in the juice of the Golden Rennet, evaporated to a thick con- sistency, proves an elegant chalybeate.

Dr. Short informs us, that cider was first invented by a Norman, who much admired the delicate flavour of apples; and "long observation/' says he, " assures us, that such as chiefly drink cider, are more healthy and strong, and have better complexions, than those that are accustomed to wine or ale." Both Lord Bacon and Dr. Baynard tell us of several persons near a hundred, and some above, who, having seldom used any other liquor, were very active and vigorous at that age. It is certainly more nourishing than wine, for not being so thoroughly fermented, its spirits are less subtile and impetuous.

" There is made an ointment," says Gerard, " with the pulp of apples and swine's grease and rose-water, which is used to beautify the face, and to take away the roughness of the skin, which is called in shops pomatum, of the apples whereof it is made/'

As the Horticultural Society of this coun- try has been established for the purpose of benefiting the world by their attention to the improvement of our various fruits, and

56

as I know it to be a part of their study to induce the planters of orchards to cul- tivate and propagate the best kinds of apples only, I trust that by their attention we shall soon have our markets supplied with a superior kind of apples to what is now ge- nerally offered for sale, as the same land that will produce an ill-flavoured apple will afford a good one ; and it is as easy to raise the best kinds of apple-trees as those of inferior value.

The Siberian Crab Apple was not culti- vated in this country until 1758, and the small fruited variety was first introduced in 1 784. The flavour of this latter kind is highly esteemed in tarts and puddings, and the tree is often planted as an ornament in our shrub- beries.

In pruning apple-trees, nothing more should be done than to cut out all those branches which cross each other, to pre- vent the rubbing of the bark; but never to shorten any of their shoots, except those shoots or suckers which proceed from the stem, which should be entirely taken off, as also all branches broken by the wind or accident, which should be cut off close to the division of the branch. November is the best time to prune apple-trees, as it

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injures them to prune in frosty weather, or when the sap begins to rise. Pruning is to be avoided as much as possible, as it creates useless shoots, and prevents the fruiting; but if trees are becoming too full of branches, which will be the case in espaliers, the better way is to rub off the buds and shoots which are irregularly produced, in the growing season. All sorts of apples produce their fruit upon cursions, or spurs, therefore it is necessary to be careful not to cut off or destroy them, as they continue to be fruitful for several seasons.

The apples intended to be preserved for the winter should remain on the trees until quite ripe, when they should be gathered in dry weather, and placed in a heap for five or six weeks, in order to sweat: they should then be carefully wiped dry, and those that are perfectly sound, packed in large jars or boxes so as to be excluded from the air, which will keep them sound and plump, and retain their flavour.

I have found the wood of old apple-trees, when used as a fuel, produce a most agree- able perfume.

The various diseases to which the apple- tree is subject, have occupied the attention and the pen of some of our greatest natu-

58

ralists, as well as many of our eminent practical gardeners. Animals of different species are found to engender a variety of kinds of animalculae, particularly where clean- liness is not attended to. Trees, according to their kinds, attract different blights : our endeavours, therefore, would be in vain to avoid the blight affecting the leaves and blossoms of large trees; but as the trunk and branches of the apple-tree are often in- jured, and sometimes destroyed, by animal- culae, an attention to the cleanliness of these trees cannot fail of being beneficial to their growth. It has therefore occurred to me, from observations and experiments I have made since compiling this work, that if the trunks of the apple-trees were rubbed with the leaves and young shoots of the elder, to which all kind of blight hath an antipathy, that those injurious although minute insects would not only be destroyed, but that it would prevent their fking themselves on these trees. As this is a matter of import- ance to the public, I shall feel obliged by the remarks of any gentlemen who may be disposed to try the experiment. The canker of apple-trees, I apprehend, is principally occasioned by the uncongenial quality of the soil. I lately travelled with a gentleman, who

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informed me, that having observed all his apple-trees became cankered at a certain state of growth, he was induced to examine the nature of the soil at the greatest depth the roots had penetrated, and which he found consisted of gravel. Not being willing to give over the propagation of apple-trees, he caused a pavement of bricks to be made on the bed of gravel, which obliged the roots to take a horizontal direction, and thereby pre- vented their reaching the gravel, since which they have been free from canker.

BARBERRY.-BERBERIS;

Or, THE PIPPERIDGE-BUSH.

In Botany, a Genus of the Class Hexandria Monogynia.

THE common barberry-bush is a native of this country ; and notwithstanding the high state of cultivation this kingdom is now arrived at, it is still to be found growing wild in many parts of the northern counties. Gerard says, in his time (1597) most of the hedges near Colnbrook were nothing else but barberry-bushes.

It is now very properly introduced into our gardens and shrubberies, being both or- namental and useful ; but it requires caution in planting, not to have it near the house or principal walks, on account of its offensive smell when in blossom. The flowers are small, but beautiful ; and on their first ap- pearance have a perfume similar to the

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cowslip, which changes to a putrid and most disagreeable scent, particularly towards the evening and at the decay of the flowers. I have a barberry-tree in my garden near twenty feet in height, the branches of which extend over a circumference of sixty-feet. It has been covered with blossom this spring, and had a pleasing effect in the shrubbery ; but was so offensive for about a fortnight, that no one would walk near it during that time. It seems particularly attractive to singing birds wherever it is planted, espe- cially the bullfinch and the goldfinch, both of which often build in these bushes.

A very singular circumstance has been stated respecting the barberry-shrub, — that corn sown near it, proves abortive, the ears being in general destitute of grain; and that this influence is sometimes extended to a distance of three or four hundred yards across a field. This is a just cause for ba- nishing it from the hedge-rows of our arable fields, for which, otherwise, it's thorny branches would have made a desirable fence. When this coral-like fruit is ripe, it adds much to the beauty of the garden ; but it's acidity is so great, that even the birds refuse to eat it.

I conclude it is the fruit called appen- dices by the ancients. Pliny says, " There

is a kind of thorny bush called appendix, having red berries hanging from the branches which were called appendices :" he adds, " these berries, either raw by themselves, or dried, and boiled in wine, are good to stay the flux of the body." I find, by Gerard's account, that the leaves were formerly used in salad, and to season meat with : he also says, " The green leaves of the barberry-bush stamped, and made into sauce, as that made of sorrel called green sauce, doth cool hot stomachs, and those that are vexed with hot burning agues, and procureth appetite/'

Barberries are of an agreeable, cooling, astringent taste, which creates appetite. A conserve is made from this fruit that is refreshing, and strengthens the stomach, and is good against diarrhoeas and dysenteries. The juice, or decoction, abates the inflam- mation of the fauces and tonsils, and heals scorbutic gums.- — Brookes.

Pickled barberries make a handsome garnish for all white dishes, where acids can be introduced : this fruit is also used for making syrup, lozenges, &c.

The bark of the tree is a good medicine against the jaundice, and all obstructions and foulness of the viscera. The inner bark of this tree, with the assistance of alum, dyes a

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bright yellow : in Poland it is used for co- louring of leather.

We have now several varieties of the barberry-shrub cultivated in England, one of which was brought from Candia in 1759> and another from Siberia in 1790; but it pos- sesses no advantage over our native kind of this fruit.

BEECH.-FAGUS.

A Genus of the Castanea, or Chestnut Tree? and of the Class Moncccia Polyandria.

THE beech is one of the handsomest of our native forest-trees, which, in stateliness and grandeur of outline, vies with the oak. It seems to have been greatly admired by the ancients. Pliny says, "There was a little hill called Carne, in the territory of Tuscu- lum, not far from the city of Rome, that was clad and beautified with a grove and tufts of beech-trees, which were as even and round in the head as if they had been cu- riously trimmed with garden shears/' He adds, " this grove was, in old times, conse- crated to Diana, by the common consent of all the inhabitants of Latium, who paid their devotions there." This author mentions one of these beech-trees, of such beauty, that Passienus Crispus, an excellent orator, who

65

was twice consul, and afterwards married the Empress Agrippina, was so much at- tached to, that he not only reposed under it, but sprinkled it plentifully with wine, and would even embrace it.

Manius Curius, after he had subdued his enemies, protested with an oath, that of all the booty and pillage taken from them, he had reserved nothing for himself but a cruet, or little ewer, made of beech-wood, wherein he might sacrifice to the gods.

The beech, it will be observed, from the class it is ranged under, produces both male and female flowers on the same tree. The fruit succeeds the latter blossoms, which have a one-leafed empalement, cut into four parts, but have no petals: the germen is fixed to the empalement, which afterwards becomes a roundish capsule, armed with soft pines opening in three cells, each con- taining a triangular nut, called the beech mast. This nut is palatable to the taste, but when eaten i» great quantities occasions head-aches and giddiness ; nevertheless, when dried and ground into meal, it makes a wholesome bread. This fruit is celebrated for having enabled the inhabitants of Scio, one of the Ionian Islands, to sustain a me-

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morable siege, which they did by the beech masts and acorns that their island afforded.

An oil, equal in flavour to the best olive oil, with the advantage of keeping longer without becoming rancid, may be obtained from the nuts by pressure. It is very com- mon in Picardy and other parts of France, where the masts abound ; in Silesia, it is used by the country people instead of butter. The cakes which remain from the pressure are given to fatten swine, oxen, or poultry. A bushel of masts are said to produce a gallon of clean oil, but the beech-tree seldom produces a full crop of masts oftener than once in three years.

A few years ago, an attempt was made to introduce the making of beech-oil in this country, and a patent was granted to the projector; but the difficulty of bringing the country people into any new measure, how- ever beneficial to them, is so great, that it often destroys the best concerted projects. In this instance it was found, that they would rather let the swine consume the masts, than suffer their children to collect them for sale to the patentee, and thus failed the making of salad oil in England.

In the reign of George the First, I find

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a petition was made for letters patent for making butter from beech-nuts.

The finest beech-trees in England arc said to grow in Hampshire. The forest of St. Leonard, near Horsham, in Sussex, abounds with noble beech-trees. The cottagers of this forest inform you, that when St. Leonard wished to rest beneath these trees, he was disturbed during the day by the biting of vipers, and that his repose was broken in the night by the warbling of nightingales, and on that account they were removed by his prayers, since which time tradition says of this forest, —

The viper has ne'er been known to sting, Or the nightingale e'er heard to sing.

The shade of the beech-tree is very in- jurious to most sorts of plants that grow near it, but is generally believed to be very salu- brious to human bodies. The leaves of the beech are collected in the autumn, to fill mattresses instead of flock or straw, as they remain sweet, and continue soft, for many years. To chew beech-leaves is accounted good for the gums and teeth. The Romans used beech-leaves and honey to restore the growth of hair, which had fallen off in sick- ness.

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The timber of these trees, in point of ac- tual use, follows next to the oak and the ash, and is little inferior to the elm for water pipes. Between the years 1790 and 1800, when John Aldredge, Esq. of New Lodge, St. Leonard's Forest, was causing fish-ponds to be dug in that neighbourhood, the workmen found scantlings of beech timber, and trunks of these trees, squared out, which were supposed to have been buried in the earth since the i time of the Romans, as there is no record mentioning that part of the forest having been either cleared, or ponds made since. Beech-timber is subject to worms when ex- posed to the air without paint. It is used by wheelwrights and chairmakers, and also by turners for making domestic wooden ware, such as bowls, shovels, &c. Bedsteads and other furniture are often made with this tim- ber ; and no wood splits so fine, or holds so well together, as beech, so that boxes, sword- sheaths, and a variety of other things, are made from it. When the art of splitting this wood was first known in England, the parties who used it kept the method a profound se- cret for many years.

BLACKBERRY.-RUBUS;

Or, BRAMBLE BERRY.

A Species of Raspberry. — In Botany, a Gemis of the Icosandria Polygynia Class.

THE bramble derives its Latin name, rubus? from ,the redness of the twigs and juice of the fruit. Pliny informs us, " that the propaga- tion of trees by layers, was taught the ancients by the bramble-bush/'

Some bow their vines, which, buried in the plain, Their tops, in distant arches, rise again.

Dryderts Virgil.

" The berries," says Pliny, " are the food of man, and have a desiccative and astringent virtue, and serve as a most appropriate re- medy for the gums and inflammation of the tonsils." The flowers also, as well as the berries of the bramble, were considered by the ancients as remedies against the worst of

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serpents. They are diuretic, and the juice pressed out of the tendrils, or young shoots, of brambles stamped, and afterwards reduced into the consistency of honey by standing in the sun, is, says the above author, " a singu- , lar medicine taken inwardly, or applied out- wardly, for all the diseases of the mouth and .eyes, as well as for the quinsy," &c. The young shoots, eaten as a salad, will fasten teeth that are loose. The roots of the bram- ble, boiled in wine, were esteemed one of the best astringents by the Roman physicians, who preferred the juice of blackberries to that of mulberries for the infirmities of the mouth. Brookes says, " the fruit, when ripe, is cool- ing, and quenches thirst ; and the leaves pounded, and applied to ringworms, and ul- cers of the legs, will heal them in a short time." Boerhaave affirms, that the roots taken out of the earth in February or March, and boiled with honey, are an excellent re- medy against the dropsy.

The jam made from blackberries is now much used in sore throats caused by colds, and is given in slight fevers.

The juice of blackberry mixed with raisin wine, before it has fermented, will give it both the colour and flavour of claret.

There is a kind of this fruit, called rubus

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camis, or dew-berry, but which Gerard calls rubus saxatilis, or stone-berry ; the protube- rances of which are much larger, and fewer in number, than those of the common black- berry. It is generally found trailing on the banks of hedge-rows, or in hazel copses, sel- dom growing above a foot high. This is a berry of excellent flavour, and well deserving a place iu cultivated grounds, as it must be equally beneficial to society that our native fruits should be improved, as well as that new varieties should be imported from climates that can give bat little hope of their thriving without the aid of artificial heat.

CACAS.-THEOBROMA ;

Or, CHOCOLATE TREE.

In Botany, of the Polyadelphia Decandria Class : Natural Order ; Columnifera.

THE generic name is derived from two Greek words, signifying the food of the gods.

The cacas, or chocolate-tree, is a native of South America, and is said to have been originally conveyed to Hispaniola from some of the provinces of New Spain, where, besides affording the natives a principal part of their nourishment, it also serves the purpose of money, 150 of the nuts, (which are about the size of Windsor beans,) being considered of the same value as a rial by the Spaniards.

It is not only an article of great internal consumption, but for exportation it is one of the most valuable fruits. Guthrie consi- ders the cacas from which chocolate is made, as the next considerable article in the na-

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tural history and commerce of Mcxicoj to gold and silver. A garden of cacas is said to produce the owner twenty thousand crowns a year.

Chocolate was not known in England until the eleventh year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, although twenty-three years had elapsed since Columbus had discovered the country of which it is a native.

Chocolate is esteemed the most restora- tive of all aliments, insomuch that one ounce of it is said to nourish as much as a pound of beef.

An acquaintance, on whose veracity I can rely, informed me, that during the re- treat of Napoleon's army from the North, he fortunately had a small quantity of little chocolate cakes in his pocket, which pre- served the life of himself and a friend for se- veral days, when they could procure no other food whatever, and many of their brother officers had perished for want.

In all countries where chocolate is known, it is esteemed, and found to be a suitable diet for all ages, more particularly for infants, old persons, those of consumptive habits, and such as are recovering from sickness.

It is related in Hawkes worth's Voyages, that Commodore Byron, in his passage through

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the^South Seas, found plenty of cacas in the island called King George's Island, and that many of his men, who were so afflicted with scorbutic disorders that their limbs were become black as ink, and who could not move without assistance, and suffering excru- ciating pain, were in a few days completely cured by eating these nuts, and able to re- sume their accustomed duties.

I have often been surprised that the making of the small chocolate cakes for eating, should not have been attempted by some persons in London, when they are in such demand at Paris, where a celebrated manufacturer of these chocolate trifles as- sured me that he had then, in 1816, received an order from a late high personage in Eng- land that would exceed £500.

The oil of the cacas-nut is the hottest of any known, and is used to recover cold, weak, and paralytic limbs. The Mexicans are said to eat the nuts raw, to assuage pains in the bowels.

We cannot but regret that the cultivation of this valuable plant should have been dis- continued in our West-India islands, nor can we be surprised when we find that the duty, including the customs and excise, amounted to upwards of four hundred and

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eighty per cent, on its marketable value, when manufactured.

It is carefully cultivated in all the French and Spanish settlements in the warmer parts of America. For what reason our ministerial policy should have so widely differed from that of the neighbouring courts, I am unable to guess ; but I trust that the alteration which has lately taken place in the duty on cho- colate, will prove a benefit to our revenue, an advantage to our colonies, and a credit to the ministers who adopted this measure.

It is certain that the cultivation of the

cacas plantation was both extensive and

successful in the British sugar islands, for

many years after they had become subject

to our government. Blome, who published

a short account of Jamaica in 1672, speaks

of cacas as being at that time one of the

chief articles of export: " There are/' says

he, " in this island, at this time, about sixty

cacas walks, and many more now planting/'

At present, I believe, there is not a single

cacas plantation from one end of Jamaica

to the other. A few scattered trees, here

and there, are all that remain of those

flourishing and beautiful groves which were

once the pride and boast of the country.

" They have withered with the indigo ma-

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nufacture," says Edwards, " under the heavy hand of ministerial exaction."

The produce of one tree in Jamaica was generally estimated at about twenty pounds of nuts. The produce per acre was rated at one thousand pounds per annum, allowing for bad years.

The chocolate-tree grows to about six feet high before the head spreads out, and it seldom exceeds from sixteen to twenty feet in the whole height, the boughs and branches beautifully extending themselves on every side, resembling the heart cherry- tree, the leaves being much of the same shape. The tree bears leaves, flowers, and fruit, all the year through; but the usual seasons for gathering the fruit are June and December. The flowers spring from the trunk and large branches: they are small, but beautiful, and sometimes pale red, but most commonly of a saffron colour : the pods are oval and pointed, and contain from ten to thirty nuts each, almost like almonds, adhering to one another by soft filaments, and enclosed in a white pulpy substance, soft and sweet, which some persons suck when they take them out of the shells. The pods change from green to a yellowish colour when they reach to their maturity.

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which is known by the rattling of the nuts, when the pods are shaken. When gathered, it is usual to lay the pods in heaps to sweat for three or four days before they are opened ; they are then exposed upon mats or skins, to the sun, every day for about a month.

The cacas-tree is permitted to bear a moderate crop of fruit the fourth year after the seed has been sown : but if the plant is weak, a greater quantity of the blossoms are gathered, in order that it may recover strength. The tree attains it's full perfection in eight years : after that it will continue to produce fruit for thirty years or more, if planted in a good soil ; but it is obnoxious to blights, and shrinks from the first appear- ance of drought. In early times the planters had many superstitious notions concerning this tree, and among others, the appearance of a comet was always considered as fatal to the cacas plantation. — Lunan.

The chocolate-tree was grown in our stoves as early as the year 1739-

CASHEW-NUT.-ANACARDIUM.

In Botany, a Class of the Polygamia Moncecia Class. Natural Or der, HoloracecE.

THE generic name is derived from two Greek words, signifying without a heart ; be- cause the fruit, instead of having the seed en- closed, has the nut growing at the end.

The cashew-tree, is a native of the Bra- zils, and other parts of America, where it grows to the height of twenty feet or more, in favourable situations. Lunan gives the fol- lowing account of it in his Hortus Jamaicensis. The fruit is full of an acrid juice, which is frequently used in the making of punch. To the apex of the fruit, grows a nut, of the size and shape of a hare's kidney, but much larger at the end which is next the fruit than at the other end. The shell is very hard, and the kernel, which is esteemed the finest nut

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in the world, is covered with a thin film. Be- tween this and the shell is lodged a thick, blackish, inflammable liquor, of such a caustic nature in the fresh nut, that if the lips chance to touch it, blisters will immedi- ately follow. The fruit is said to be good in disorders of the stomach ; for the juice of it cuts the thick tough humours, which obstruct the free circulation of the blood, and thus removes the complaint. This juice, ex- pressed and fermented, makes a fine rough wine, useful where the viscera or solid system has been relaxed. Barham, who has written on this fruit, says, " the stone of this apple appears before the fruit itself, growing at the end in the shape of a kidney, as big as a walnut. Some of the fruit are all red, some entirely yellow, and some mixed with both red and yellow, and others perfectly white, of a very pleasant taste in general ; but there is a great variety, as some more sharp, some in taste resembling cherries, others very rough like unripe apples. The taste of most of them is sweet and pleasant, but generally goes off with an astringency or stipticity upon the tongue, which proceeds from it's tough fibres, that run longwise through the fruit. When cut with a knife, it turns as black as ink. The generality of the fruit

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is as big and much of the shape of the French Pippins, and makes an excellent cider or wine/' Barham adds, that he has distilled a spirit from the nut far exceeding arrack, rum, or brandy, of which an admirable punch is made.

The flowers are very small, grow in tufts of a carnation colour, and are very odori- ferous. The leaves much resemble those of the common walnut-tree in shape and smell, and a decoction of them is equally effectual in cleansing and healing old wounds.

The oil cures the herpes, takes away freckles and liver spots, but draws blis- ters, and therefore must be cautiously made use of; it also takes away corns, but it is necessary to have a very good defensive round the corn to prevent inflaming the part. The inside kernel is very pleasant to eat when young, and, before the fruit is too ripe, exceeding any walnut; and when older and drier, roasted, is very plea- sant, exceeding Pistachio nuts or almonds ; and ground up with cocoa, makes an excel- lent chocolate.

It has been observed, that poor dropsical slaves who have had the liberty to go into a cashew-walk, and eat what cashews they

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please, as well as the roasted nuts, have been recovered. These trees are of quick growth : Barhatn says he has planted the nuts, and the young trees have produced fruit in two years after. They will continue bearing fruit for more than a hundred years. Many are now flourishing in Jamaica that were planted when the Spaniards had it in possession.

I have lately received from Jamaica a cashew apple, bearing two distinct nuts, which was considered so rare a circumstance that it was preserved in spirits. It's appear- ance is unnatural, resembling a lemon pippin apple, with two lambs' kidneys stuck on the end.

The wood of the cashew is excellent, strong, and lasting timber.

These trees annually transude in large quantities, viz. often to ten or twelve pounds' weight of fine, semi-transparent gum, similar to gum-arabic, and not at all inferior to it in virtue and quality, except that it contains a light astringency, which perhaps renders it the more valuable in many respects : for this reason it is often used as a suc- cedaneum in the Jamaica shops.

The thick oil of the nut or shell tinges linen of a rusty iron colour, which can be

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hardly got out ; and if any wood be smeared with it, it preserves it from decay. From the body of this tree is procured, by tapping, or incision, a milky juice, which stains linen of a deep black, and cannot be discharged. Dr. Grew mentions the juice being used for staining of cottons ; but it is doubtful which of the species he means, though Sir Hans Sloane supposes it to be of the acajou or cashew, here mentioned.

Long seems of opinion that this juice has the same property as the Japan lac.

The oil between the rinds of the nut, il hilu to the candle, emits bright, salient particles. This oil is used as a cosmetic to remove freckles and sun burning, but the pain suffered, makes it's use not very fre- quent. Grainger.

The pith, or medullary part of the anacardium, is extremely pungent and acrimonious; whence the ancients made great use of it in cold diseases of the head, particularly to strengthen the me- mory ; but the abuse of it sometimes making them stupid, delirious, or even mad, the moderns rarely venture on it's use, at least not without great correctives. Chambers.

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The cashew nut-tree can only be raised in stoves in this country, where it has been cultivated since the year 1699.

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CHERRY.-CERASUS.

In Botany, of the Icosandria Monogynia Class. It was formerly considered by Botanists as a distinct Genus; but Linn&us pro- nounces it of the Prunus Species.

THIS beautiful fruit was procured and brought into Europe by the overthrow of Mithridates, king of Pontus, when he was driven from his dominions by Lucullus, the Roman general, who found the cherry-tree growing in Cerasus, a city of Pontus, (now called Keresoun, a maritime town belong- ing to the Turks in Asia,) which his army destroyed, and from whence it derived the present name of Cherry. Lucullus, who was as great an admirer of nature as he was of the arts, thought this tree of so much importance, that when he was granted a triumph, it was placed in the most con-

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spicuous situation among the royal treasures which he obtained from the sacking of the capital of Armenia; and I doubt much if there was a more valuable acquisition made to Rome by that war, which is stated by Plu- tarch to have cost the Armenians 155,000 men : we may very justly style it the fruit of the Mithridatic war.

Botany seems to have been more studied in early times by distinguished persons than at present. In this instance we find the conquered and the conqueror both botanists, Mithridates, whom Cicero considered the greatest monarch that ever sat on a throne, and who had vanquished twenty-four nations whose different languages he had learnt, and spoke with the same ease and fluency as his own, found time to write a treatise on botany in the Greek language. His skill in physic is well known : there is even, at this day, a celebrated antidote, called Mithridate, a particular translation of the account of which will be found in the history of the walnut*

It was in the 68th year before the birth of Christ, that Lucullus planted the cherry- tree in Italy, which " was so well stocked," says Pliny, " that in less than twenty-six years after, other lands had cherries, even as

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far as Britain beyond the Ocean." This would make their introduction to England as early as the 42d year before Christ, although they are generally stated not to have been brought to this country until the early part of the reign of Nero, A. D. 55.

Some idea may be formed of the Roman gardens, by the luxurious manner in which Lucullus lived in his retirement from Rome and the public affairs. He had passages dug under the hills, on the coast of Cam- pania, to convey the sea- water to his house and pleasure grounds, where the fishes flocked iri such abundance, that what were found at his death sold for more than twenty-five thousand pounds. Pliny men- tions eight kinds of cherries as being culti- vate^ in Italy when he wrote his Natural History, which was about the 70th year, A. D. " The reddest cherries," continues he, "are called apronia; the blackest, actia; the Caecilian are round. The Julian cherries have a pleasant taste, but are so tender that they must be eaten when gathered, as they will npt endure carriage." The Du- racine cherries were esteemed the best, but in Pkardy the Portugal cherries were most admired. The Macedonian cherries grew on dwarf trees; and one kind i& men-

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tioned by the above author, which never appeared ripe, having a hue between green, red, and black. He mentions a cherry that was grafted, in his time, on a bay-tree stock, which circumstance gave it the tiame of laurta : this cherry is described as having an agreeable bitterness. " The cherry-tree could never be made to grow in Egypt/' continues Pliny, " with all the care and attention of

man/'

The county of Kent has long been cele- brated for the quantity of cherries which it produces, and, in all probability, they were first planted in this part of England, of which Caesar speaks more favourably than of any other part which he visited. Some authors assure us, that the whole race of cherries that had been brought to this country by the Romans, were lost in the Saxon period, and were only restored by Richard Harris, fruiterer to Henry the VIHth, who brought them from Flanders, and planted them at Sittingbourn in Kent. This appears to be an error, as Gerard says, " the Flanders' cherrie-tree differeth not from our English cherrie-tree in stature or in forme," &c.

There is an account of a cherry-orchard of thirty-two acres in Kent, which, in the year 154)0, produced fruit that sold in these

early days for £1000, which seems an enor- mous sum, as at that period good land is stated to have let at one shilling per acre. We can only reconcile our minds to this great price, from the deficiency of other fruits in this country, and the splendour in which Henry the VHIth and his ministers lived.

Fruit orchards are still considered the most valuable estates in Kent ; and I learn from Boys's Kent, that cherry-gardens, while in full bearing, pay better than orchards ; but the cherry-tree does not generally con- tinue more than thirty years in perfection. Mr. Randall says he has known a single cherry-tree produce fruit that he has sold for above five pounds per year, for seven years in succession. Gerard says, " the Luke Wardens cherrie is so called, because he was the first that brought the same out of Italy ; another we have called the Naples' cherrie, because it was first brought into these parts from Naples : the fruit is verie great, sharpe pointed, somewhat like a man's heart in shape, of a pleasant taste, and of a deepe blackish colour when it is ripe/' This author mentions the Spanish and the Gas- coigne cherry, &c. and says, " there are many other sorts in our London gardens/'

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The cherry seems to have been a fruit highly esteemed by the court in the time of Charles the First, as I find, by the survey and valuation of the manor and mansion belonging to his queen, Henrietta Maria, at Wymbleton (now Wimbledon) in Surry, which was made in 1649? there were upwards of two hundred cherry-trees in those gardens. ( Archceologia, vol. x. p. 399.)

I have observed, that the cherry-gardens in the vicinity of London, have what is termed an upper and an under crop, which is done by planting strawberries or currants, &c. between the trees; and the latter fruit, I have noticed, has been as fine, and as pro- ductive, as when planted by itself, and en- grossing the whole garden. Phillips says the apple tree is

Uneasy, seated by funereal yew, Or walnut, (whose malignant touch impairs All generous fruits,) or near the bitter dews Of cherries; therefore weigh the habits well Of plants, how they associate best, nor let 111 neighbourhood corrupt their hopeful grafts.

Lord Bacon has clearly elucidated what the ancients considered the sympathy or an- tipathy of plants. " For it is thus/' says this great man, " wheresoever one plant draw- eth such a particular juice out of the earth

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as it qualifieth the earth, so that juice which remaineth is fit for the other plant : there the neighbourhood doeth good, because the nou- rishments are contrary, or several ; but where two plants draw much the same juice, there the neighbourhood hurteth ; for the one de- ceiveth the other/'

The cherry, like many other kinds of fruits, has had its sorts so multiplied, by various graftings and sowing the seeds, that we now enjoy a great variety of this agree- able fruit, and for a considerable portion of the summer, as it is one of the first trees that yields its fruity in return for the care of the gardener. From the ripening of the Kentish and the May Duke, to the Yellow Spanish and the Morello, we may reckon full one third of the year that our desserts are furnished with this ornamental fruit; and to those who have the advantage of housed trees, the cherry makes a much earlier ap- pearance, as it is a fruit that bears forcing exceedingly well.

Cherries have ever been found more tempting than wholesome. Pliny says, " this fruit will loosen and, hurt the stomach ; but, when hung up and dried, has a contrary effect/' He relates, that some authors have affirmed that cherries, eaten fresh from

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the tree when the morning clew is on them, and the stones being also swallowed, will purge so effectually, as to cure those who have the gout in their feet.

Dried cherries are much esteemed for winter puddings, and the wine made from this fruit much resembles the red Constantia, both in colour and flavour. The small black cherries, with good brandy, produce one of the most wholesome as well as agreeable li- quors. Eau de cerises is an admired liquor of France.

The wood of the cherry-tree, which is hard and tough, is next to oak for strength, and comes the nearest to mahogany in appear- ance: it is in much request by the turners for making chairs, &c.

The cherry-tree produces its fruit gene- rally at the extremity of the branches; therefore, in pruning, they should never be shortened.

Judiciously planted, the cherry-tree is very ornamental in a shrubbery, its early white blossoms contrasting with the sombre shades of evergreens in the spring, and its graceful ruby balls giving a pleasing variety in the summer.

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There is a feast celebrated at Hamburg, called the "Feast of Cherries;" in which

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I

troops of children parade the streets with green boughs ornamented with cherries, to commemorate a victory obtained in the fol- lowing manner : in 1432 the Hussites threat- ened the city of Hamburg with an immediate destruction, when one of the citizens named Wolf proposed that all the children in the city, from seven to fourteen years of age, should be clad in mourning, and sent as sup- plicants to the enemy. Procopius Nasus, chief of the Hussites, was so touched with this spectacle, that he received the young suppli- cants, regaled them with cherries and other fruits, and promised them to spare the city. The children returned crowned with leaves, holding cherries, and crying " Victory!"

CHESNUT.-CASTANEA.

In Botany, it is ranged in the Class ofMon&cia Polyandria, and is of the Genus of Fagus, or Beech. The Fruit is more properly a Mast than a Nut.

THE chesnut-tree was first brought to Eu- rope from Sardis, (now Sart,) a town of Asia Minor, by the Greeks, who called the fruit the Sardinian nut, until it was honoured by the appellation of A*o? BaAavo?, or Jupiter's nut. Sardis was burnt by the Athenians 504 years before Christ, which caused the invasion of Attica by Darius. We may there- fore venture to conclude that the chesnut was thus early known to the Grecians. Pliny mentions eight kinds of chesnuts as being known to the Romans in his time, and says they were ground into meal, and made into bread, by the poor ; " but when roasted/' he adds, " they are pleasanter and better food/' He also mentions one kind, coctiva

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(chesnuts to be boiled). Chesnuts were con- sidered nutritive by the ancients, and good for those who retched up blood.

"Chesnuts," continues Pliny, "were much improved when men began to graft them/'

The Romans called them Castanea, after a city of that name in Thessalia, from whence they first procured them, and where they were grown in great abundance by the Grecians.

Some authors affirm that the chesnut-tree is a native of this country. Dr. Ducarel maintains, in his Anglo-Norman Antiquities, that it is an indigenous, or native tree of this island ; for this purpose he alleges, that many of our old buildings in London, and other places, contain a great quantity of this timber.

The remains of very old decayed chesnut- trees may be seen in the Forest of Dean, Enfield Chase, and in many parts of Kent. At Fortworth, in Gloucestershire, is a chesnut- tree fifty-two feet round : it is proved to have stood there since the year 1150, and was then so remarkable, that it was called " The great chcsnut of Fortworth.3' It fixes the boundary of a manor. Mr. Marsham states that this tree is 1100 years old.

Cheshunt, or Cheutrehunt, in Hertford-

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shire, is supposed to have been so called from the chesnut-trees with which it formerly abounded.

Camden remarks, that Cowdery Park, near Midhurst in Sussex, abounded in fine chesnut-trees. It is therefore evident that chesnut timber has been long known in this country ; but I am induced to believe that it was one of the fruits which was introduced by the Romans to this island.

Chesnuts were certainly considered as a proper food for man by Lord Bacon, who in his " Essay on Plantations," says, " In a country of plantation, first look about what kind of victual the country yields of itself to hand ; as chesnuts, waluuts, pine apples, olives, dates, &c. &c."

Chesnuts stewed with cream make a much admired dish, and many families prefer them to all other stuffings for turkeys ; they make an excellent soup ; and I have no doubt but that chesnuts might be advantageously used in cooking, so as to make many agreeable and wholesome dishes. I have had them stewed and brought to table with salt fish, when they have been much admired ; but it is exceedingly difficult to introduce any article as food that has not been established by long custom ; and it is not more strange

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than true, that the difficulty increases, if the object be economy.

The importation of chesnuts is very con- siderable both from Spain and Portugal, yet I believe it is rare if ever there is a single meal made from them in this country. The Catalonians have this strange religious prac- trice. On the 1st of November, the eve of All Souls, they run about from house to house to eat chesnuts, believing that for every chesnut they swallow, with proper faith and unction, they shall deliver a soul out of pur- gatory.

As ornamental and profitable for parks, chesnut-trees are exceeded by no others, which all must acknowledge who have seen the fine avenues in Greenwich Park. There is no better food for deer than chesnuts, and they fall from the trees when other sustenance is scarce.

The timber is of equal value with the best oak, and, for many purposes, far exceeding it. No wood is more preferable for making casks to hold wine and other liquors, as it imparts no taste to the contents, and has the property of maintaining its bulk constantly, without shrinking or swelling, as most other timber is apt to do, which often causes casks to burst. It has also the quality of lasting

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longer than elm, or any other timber, when used for water pipes, or other purposes, under ground.

The chesnut-wood has recently been suc- cessfully applied to the purnoses of dyeing and tanning, thus forming a substitute for log- wood and oak bark. Leather tanned by it, is declared, by the gentleman who made the experiment, to be superior to that tanned with oak bark ; and in dyeing, its affinity for wool is said, on the same authority, to be greater than that of either galls or sumach, and consequently the colour given is more permanent : it also makes admirable ink.

The great chesnut-tree, near Mount Etna, is perhaps one of the most extraordinary trees in the Old World. It is called " The ches- nut-tree of a Hundred Horses/' from the following traditionary tale: Jean of Arragon, when she visited Mount Etna, was attended by her principal nobility, when a heavy shower obliged them to take refuge under this tree, the immense branches of which sheltered the whole party* According to the account given of it by Mr. Howel, this chesnut-tree is 160 feet in circumference, and, although quite hol- low within, the verdure of the branches is not affected; for this species of tree, like the willow and some others, depends upon its

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bark for subsistence. The cavity of this enormous tree is so extensive, that a house has been built in it, and the inhabitants have an oven therein, where they dry nuts, ches- nuts, almonds, &c. of which they make con- serves ; but as these thoughtless people often get fuel from the tree that shelters them, it is feared that this natural curiosity will be de- stroyed by those whom it protects.

HORSE-CHESNUT.— HIPPO- CASTANEUM.

JEsculus; in Botany, of the Class Heptan- dria Monogynia.

THIS tree was first brought from the north- ern parts of Asia in 1588, and is now one of the greatest ornaments of our parks and plantations, particularly when in blossom.

The grand avenue of horse-chesnut- trees in Bushey Park, near Hampton-Court Pa^- lace, is the finest in England, and many par- ties go from London to see it when in full blossom.

There is a fine print of an old patriot of this neighbourhood, with the following in- scription : " Timothy Bennet, of Hampton Wick, in Middlesex, Shoemaker, aged 75, 1752. — This true Briton, unwilling to leave the world worse than he found it, by a vigo- rous application of the laws of his country

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in the cause of liberty, obtained a free pas- sage through Bushey Park, which had many years been withheld from the people/'

The fruit of the horse-chesnut-tree is ground, and given to the horses in Turkey, particularly to such as have coughs, or are broken- winded. The Turks also give it to milch cows, it being found to increase the quantity of milk, without injuring the qua- lity. In France and Switzerland horse-ches- nuts are used for the purpose of bleaching yarn, and are recommended as capable of extensive use in whitening, not only flax and hemp, but also silk and wool.

A patent was granted, in the year 1796, to Lord William Murray, for his discovery of a method of extracting starch from horse- chesnuts, and a paste or size has been made from them, which is preferred by book- binders, shoemakers, and paper-hangers, to that made from wheaten flour. It is thought that the meal of this fruit can be converted into many useful articles, such as soap, &c. ; and as it loses its bitter astringent taste after it has been rasped into water, it is con- cluded that it would be a wholesome food mixed with flour or potatoes. The prickly husks are valuable for tanning of leather. Zannichelli affirms, that he has made a

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great many trials, and has found the bark of the horse-chesnut-tree to have the same effect as the Peruvian bark.

This tree is of quick growth, and the timber has been thought of but little value, although it is in appearance so like the wain- scot oak, that none but those who are accus- tomed to work on these woods, can discern the difference.

COCOA-NUT.-COCOS.

Natural Order, Palmed ; in Botany, a Genus of the Monacia Hexandria Class.

THE cocoa-nut appears to have been known to the ancient Greeks, as I find the Macedo- nian soldiers, who accompanied Alexander the Great in his expedition into India, met with various Indian fruits, although they were not able to give the names of them. This nut was evidently one of the fruits they dis- covered; and their account of it has been faithfully transmitted to us in the twelfth book of Pliny's Natural History, chap. 6. " The fruit," he says, " is put forth at the bark, having within it a wonderful pleasant juice, and in such abundance, that one of them is sufficient to afford a competent refection for four men/' The Macedonians described the leaves as being of great size, resembling birds' wings.

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From this period, which was about 325 years before Christ, little or nothing more was known of the cocoa-nut by the Euro- peans, for the space of 1 823 years, when the discoveries of Columbus opening a wide field of speculation for the naturalist as well as the trader, this fruit became once more known to the Old World ; but it is only of late years that the cocoa-nut has been brought to England as an article of commerce. It is now used by the West-India captains instead of wedges of timber, to fill up the vacua be- tween the casks and other packages in their ships. The freightage of these large nuts is consequently considered as of no charge : they are therefore now become as common in the shops and in the streets of London, as the orange.

The cocoa-nut is the produce of a tree of the first importance to the Indians, as it furnishes them with meat, drink, physic, clothing, lodging, furniture, and fuel.

Chambers states, that many travellers aver, from the size and useful product of this tree, that from a single cocoa-nut tree and its fruit, a ship might be built, equipped, and laden with merchandise and provision.

It is supposed to be a native of the Mai- dive, and some desert islands in the East

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Indies, and from thence to have been trans- ported to all the warmer parts of America. The largest cocoa-nut-trees grow on the river Oronooko, which reach to the height of sixty feet, and, bearing all their foliage at the top, produce a beautiful, waving, featherlike ap- pearance.

The Spaniards call it Palma de las Indias, and the Portuguese coco, from the three holes in the shell, which give it the appearance of a monkey's head.

The kernel, or substance, which adheres to the interior of the shell of the cocoa-nut, is very nourishing, and is used instead of almonds in milks, emulsions, &c. These emulsions, when added to coffee instead of cream, give it an exquisite taste; excellent cakes and fritters are also made from the kernel, when rasped.

The tender shoots of this tree, when boiled, afford an excellent substitute for cab- bage.

A large cocoa-nut will produce upwards of a pint of milk ; and when young, it is esteemed one of the greatest dainties of America. As the fruit gets older, the milk becomes more sharp and cooling, conse- quently more agreeable to those of feverish habits. It is also esteemed highly anti-

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scorbutic. Custards, blanc-mange, rice pud- dings, &c. are made with this milk.

An agreeable sweet oil, fit for the table, is procured, if the milk of the cocoa-nut be concentrated by ebullition over a mo- derate fire. The oil obtained from this nut by pressure is an excellent lamp oil, burning with a clear bright flame, without exhaling any odour or smoke. The substance from which this oil has been squeezed, is given to cattle, mixed with their forage, and greatly promotes the quantity of milk when given to cows.

A juice is obtained by tapping the trunk of this tree, or by cutting off the shoots which produce the nuts, and which is caught in jars attached to the trees. This liquor, after it has fermented, is distilled into a spirit called arrack, which is very superior to that drawn from rice : it also improves the flavour of rum when used in the distillation of that spirit. This juice, when exposed to the sun, produces vinegar.

The cocoa-nut-oil, composed with the emulsion, is a gentle purgative, without being nauseous or producing colic ; it is also recom- mended in coughs, and complaints of the lungs.

The filings of the hard shell, applied to

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old wounds, will cleanse and heal them ra- pidly.

In Maldivia, this nut is thought a power- ful antidote against the venom of serpents and other poisons.

The milk is of the greatest importance in dyeing silks, cotton, or woollen stuffs, as it prevents black and other caustic colours from burning them, and gives a brilliancy to the colour. The emulsion of the kernel is used in the art of painting chintzes, and in scouring the cloth after the colours have been applied. The Hindoos procure their fine violet and rose colours by the assistance of this fruit.

The tough fibres or substance which en- closes the shell, being steeped in water and beaten like flax, is then manufactured into linen.

The palms of this tree are made into mats for sleeping on ; the leaves, which are of great length, are made into baskets, hammocks, mats, brooms, racks, &c. and are used for the thatching of houses : the trunk of the tree is employed for gutters, and split into laths for covering buildings, &c.

The shell of the fruit, when polished, is formed into basins, drinking cups, and a va- riety of useful articles.

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The Emperors of Mogul highly esteemed the cocoa-nut for making goblets, which they have set with precious stones and edged with gold, believing that poison would lose its baneful qualities in these vases.

The cocoa-nuts have three holes closely stopped ; one of these being both wider, and more easily penetrated than the rest: from this, when the nut is planted, rises the ger- men, or young tree, first having ramified, and filled the whole cavity of the nut ; and then shoots out at the before-mentioned hole in the top, and soon appears above ground in two narrow leaves : through these holes likewise is the water copiously dis- tilled into the nut from the roots : thus has nature wonderfully made an egress for the future tree.

M. Le Goux de Flaix, an officer of en- gineers, and a member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, in his account of the cocoa-nut- tree, says it is a well-known fact, that the fibrous covering of the cocoa-nut is con- verted into good ropes, which are useful in navigation and for various purposes on shore. Cables for anchors made of this substance are much better than those made of hemp. They are exceedingly elastic, stretch without straining the vessel, and scarcely ever break,

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advantages which are not possessed by those of hemp. They are also lighter, and never rot in consequence of their being soaked with sea-water; nor do they exhale damp or miasmata, which are exceedingly hurtful to the crews of ships who sleep on the same deck where ropes are kept when ships are under sail. These ropes are also easier ma- naged, and run better in the pulleys during nautical manoeuvres.

Some time since a cocoa-tree was cut down on Mr. Hanson's land, in Jamaica, which had been planted about a century, when, in grubbing up the root, the shell from which the tree had been raised was found quite sound and perfect.

The cocoa-tree growing in Chili produces a fruit not larger than a walnut, but this is more esteemed than the large kind which is brought to England.

COFFEE.— COFFEA.

In Botany of the Class Pentandria Monogynia; Natural Order, Stellate. It is named after Caffa, in Africa, where it grows abun- dantly.

THIS berry, which affords such a wholesome and agreeable beverage, is said to have been drunk from time immemorial in Ethiopia, but of this we have no authority ; and as the use of most plants has been accidentally discovered, it is probable that the properties of coffee might have been first perceived by a goatherd (as related by Chambers), who observed that his cattle, after browsing on this tree, would wake and caper all night, and that a prior of a monastery, being in- formed of it, first tried it on his monks, to prevent their sleeping at matins.

About the fifteenth century the use of coffee appears to have been introduced from Persia by Gemaleddin, Mufti of Aden, a

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city near the mouth of the Red Sea. He, finding it dissipate the fumes which oppress the head, give cheerfulness, and prevent sleep, without injury, recommended it to his dervises, with whom he used to spend the night in prayer. It was soon after this drunk at Aden, by all studious persons and those who travelled by night. It was progress- ively used at Mecca, Medina, &c. and Grand Cairo: hence it continued it's progress to Damascus and Aleppo. From the two latter places, it was introduced into Constantinople by persons of the name of Shems and Hekin, in the year 1554, each of whom opened a public coffee-house in that city. These coffee-houses becoming a rendezvous for newsmongers, who made too free with state affairs, were suppressed by Cuproli, the Grand Vizier.

Rauwolfus, who was in the Levant in 1573, was the first European author who

made any mention of coffee.

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The Venetians seem to be the next who used coffee. Pietro Delia Valle, a Venetian, writes from Constantinople in 1615, in- forming his friend, that upon his return he should bring him some coffee, which he believed was a thing unknown in this country.

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Lord Chancellor Bacon makes mention of it in 1624: he says, " the Turks have a drink they call coffee, made with boiling water from a berry reduced into powder, which makes the water black as soot, and is of a pungent and aromatic smell, and is drunk warm/'

M. La Roque, who published his journey into Arabia Felix, in 1715, contends that his father having been with M. de la Haye, the French ambassador at Constantinople, did, when he returned to Marseilles, in 1644, drink coffee every day ; but the same author acknowledges that it was M. Theve- not, who taught the French to drink coffee on his return from the East, in 1657- It was made fashionable and more known in Paris, in 1669, by Soliman Aga, am- bassador from Sultan Mahomet the Fourth, who gave coffee at all his parties with great magnificence; and it could not fail being pronounced an agreeable beverage by the Parisian ladies, after they had received it from his slaves with bended knee. If it were a matter of policy with the Turks to get coffee introduced into France, the ambas- sador's splendid porcelain, equipage, and gold fringed napkins, were the best recom- mendation that could have been given to

a people who are so naturally fond of show.

Two years after, it was sold in public at the Foire St. Germaine, by Pascal, an Armenian, who afterwards set up a coffee-house on the Quai de TEcole ; but not being encouraged in Paris, he left that city and came to Lon- don: however, soon after this, some spacious rooms were opened in Paris for the sale of coffee, and they soon increased to upwards of three hundred.

It is said to have been first brought to England by Mr. Nathaniel Conopius, a Cretan, who made it his common beverage, at Baliol College, at Oxford, in the year 1641, and that the first coffee-house in England was kept by one Jacob, a Jew, at the sign of the Angel in Oxford, in 1650. Coffee was first publicly known in London, in 1652, when Mr. Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with him a Ragusan Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua Rossee, who understood the roasting and making of coffee, and kept a house for the purpose, in George Yard, Lombard Street, or rather, according to Mr. Houghton, in a shed in the Churchyard of St, Michael's, Cornhill. The famous Dr. Harvey used it frequently. Mr. Ray affirms that, in 1688,

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London might rival Grand Cairo in the number of it's coffee-houses, so rapidly had it come into use ; and it is thought that they were augmented and established more firmly by the ill-judged proclamation of Charles the Second, in 1675, to shut up coffee-houses as seminaries of sedition : this act was suspended in a few days.

The first mention of coffee in our statute books, is in i860, (xn. Char. II. cap. 24.) by which, a duty of fourpence was laid upon every gallon of coffee bought or sold.

The Arabs seem to have been very jea- lous of letting this tree be known, and in order to confine the commodity to themselves, they destroyed the vegetable quality of the seeds ; but Nicholas Witsen, burgomaster of Am- sterdam and governor of the East-India Company, desired Van Hoorn, governor of Batavia, to procure from Mocha, in Arabia Felix, some berries of the cof- fee-tree, which were obtained and sown at Batavia ; and about the year 1690, several plants having been raised from seeds, Van Hoorn sent one over to Governor Witsen, who presented it to the garden at Amsterdam. It there bore fruit, which in a short time produced many young plants: from these the East Indies and most of the

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gardens in Europe have been furnished. In 1696, it was cultivated at Fulham, by Bishop Compton, and in 1714, the magistrates of Amsterdam presented Louis the Fourteenth with a coffee-tree, which was sent to the royal garden at Marli. In 1718, the Dutch colony, at Surinam, began first to plant coffee ; and in 1722, M. de la Motte Aigron, governor of Cayenne, contrived by an ar- tifice to bring away a plant from Surinam, which, by the year 1725, had produced many thousands. The French authors affirm that it was planted in the Isle of Bourbon, in the year 1718, having been obtained from Mocha : this seems doubtful; but it is ascertained that M. Clieux carried the first coffee-plant to Martinico, in 1720. M. Fusee Aublet states that one tree only survived in the Isle of Bourbon, which bore fruit in 1720. From Martinico it spread to the neighbouring islands. Sir Nicholas Laws first introduced it into Jamaica, in the year 1728, and planted it at Townwell Estate, now called Temple Hall, in Liguanea : the first berries produced from this tree sold at a bit each, which is equal to 6d. In the year 1752 the export of coffee from Jamaica was rated at 60,000 Ibs. ; and it has continued regularly to increase since that time, except when additional duties

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have been laid on, which have as regularly lessened the exports and the revenue also ; an important proof, among others, how fre- quently heavy taxation defeats its own purpose.

In 1808, the exports from Jamaica were 29,528,273 Ibs ; the next year they were less- ened about four millions of pounds ; in 1812, the export was 18,481,986 Ibs.

Every gentleman who has stoves should raise this tree for the beauty of its appear- ance. It is an evergreen whose leaves con- tinue three years ; and being of a fine dark green, make a beautiful contrast with the clusters of pure white blossoms, which per- fume the air with an odour like jasmine. Nothing can be conceived more delightful and grateful than the appearance and per- fume of a field of coffee-trees when in full bloom : it has the resemblance of a shower of snow, which nearly obscures the dark green branches. The tree, like the walnut, pro- duces smaller fruit, and better flavoured, as it becomes older.

The Turkey coffee is the smallest berry, and is more esteemed for its flavour than that which grows in the West Indies. I conclude that one great cause of the American coffee being inferior in point of

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flavour, is owing to the practice, in that part of the world, of gathering the berries before they are quite ripe, whereas the Arabians shake their trees, and by this means obtain the berries in full perfection. Mr. Lunan observes, that the West-Indian berries being considerably larger than those of the Turkey coffee, require much longer keeping; but Mr. Miller, the celebrated gardener, is of opinion, that coffee does not require long keeping, and that it loses a part of its flavour. He states that two gentlemen, who resided some years in Arabia, assured him that the berries, when first ripe, were very superior to those which had been kept: he also states, that from plants brought from the West Indies, and raised in English hot-houses, coffee-ber- ries have been produced, which, at a proper age, were found to surpass the very best Mocha that could be produced in Great Britain. Jamaica coffee is often sold as Turkey coffee in London, and there have been many samples sent from thence, that have proved quite equal to any Arabian berries. As coffee readily imbibes the smell or flavour of any article it comes in con- tact with, it is often injured in the voyage home, by being stowed near sugar, rum, pimento, <kc. &c. ; and the flavour which it

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thus contracts, cannot be separated again, even by roasting.

The most eminent physicians of every country have recommended the use of coffee for various complaints. It greatly relieves the head-ache, and is recommended to those of constitutional weak stomachs, as it accelerates the process of digestion, takes away languor and listlessness, and affords a pleasing sensation.

Coffee is often found useful in quieting the tickling vexatious cough. Sir John Floyer, who had been afflicted with the asthma for sixty years, was relieved by strong coffee.

The great use of coffee in France is sup- posed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel; for where coffee is used there as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known.

Voltaire lived almost on coffee, and said nothing exhilarated his spirits so much as the smell of it ; for which reason, he had what he was about to use in the day roasted in his chamber, every morning, when he lived at Fernai.

A friend writes me from Constantinople, that many of the Turks will subsist almost entirely on coffee, except during the rigid

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fast of the Ramadan, or Turkish Lent, which lasts forty days; during which time they neither eat, drink, or smoke, while the sun is over the horizon; and the use, of coffee is then so strictly forbidden, that those who have even the smell of coffee on them, are deemed to have violated the in- junctions of their prophet.

Among the various qualities of coffee, that of it's being an antidote to the abuse of opium must make it an invaluable article with the Turks.

Those who use opiates at night would find the advantage of taking strong coffee in the morning.

An interesting analysis of coffee was made by M. Cadet, apothecary in ordinary to the household of Napoleon, when emperor; from which it appears, that the berries con- tain mucilage in abundance, much gallic acid, a resin, a concrete essential oil, some albumen, and a volatile aromatic principle, with a portion of lime, potash, charcoal, iron, &c. Roasting develops the soluble princi- ples. Mocha coffee is, of all kinds, the most aromatic and resinous. M. Cadet advises that coffee be neither roasted nor in- fused till the day it be drunk, and that the roasting be moderate.

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Dr. Moseley, in his learned and inge- nious Treatise, states, that " the chemical analysis of coffee evinces that it possesses a great portion of mildly bitter, and lightly astringent gummous and resinous extract, a considerable quantity of oil, a fixed salt, and a volatile salt. These are it's medicinal constituent principles. The intention of torrefaction is not only to make it deliver those principles, and make them soluble in water, but to give it a property it does not possess in the natural state of the berry. By the action of fire, it's leguminous taste, and the aqueous part of it's mucilage, are destroyed ; it's saline properties are created, and disengaged, and it's oil is rendered em- pyreumatical. From thence arises the pun- gent smell, and exhilarating flavour, not found in it's natural state.

" The roasting of the berry to a proper degree, requires great nicety. If it be under- done, it's virtues will not be imparted, and in use it will load and oppress the stomach : if it be overdone, it will yield a flat, burnt, and bitter taste; it's virtues will be destroyed, and in use it will heat the body, and act as an astringent. The closer it is confined, at the time of the roasting, and till used, the better will it's volatile pungency, flavour, and virtues, be preserved.

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66 The influence which coffee, judiciously prepared, imparts to the stomach, from it's invigorating qualities, is strongly exemplified by the immediate effect produced on taking it when the stomach is overloaded with food, or nauseated with surfeit, or debili- tated by intemperance, or languid from ina- nition.

" In vertigo, lethargy, catarrh, and all disorders of the head, from obstructions in the capillaries, long experience has proved it to be a powerful medicine; and in cer- tain cases of apoplexy, it has been found serviceable even when given in clysters, where it has not been convenient to convey it's effects to the stomach. Mons, Malebranche restored a person from apoplexy by repeated clysters of coffee.

" Du Four relates an extraordinary in- stance of the effect of coffee in the gout: he says, Mons. Deverau was attacked with the gout at twenty-five years of age, and had it severely until he was upwards of fifty, with chalk stones in the joints of his hands and feet: he was recommended the use of coffee, which he adopted, and had no return of the gout.

" A small cup or two of coffee, immedi- ately after dinner, promotes digestion.

,,With a draught of water previously

drunk, according to the eastern custom, coffee is serviceable to those who are of a costive habit."

The generality of English families make their coffee too weak, and use too much sugar, which often causes it to turn acid on the stomach. Almost every housekeeper has a peculiar method of making coffee ; but it never can be excellent, unless it be made strong of the berry, any more than our English wines can be good, so long as we continue to form the principal of them on sugar and water.

Count Rumford says, "Coffee may be too bitter; but it is impossible that it should ever be too fragrant. The very smell of it is reviving, and has often been found to be useful to sick persons, and to those who are afflicted with the head-ache. In short, every thing proves that the volatile, aromatic matter, whatever it may be, that gives fla- vour to coffee, is what is most valuable in it, and should be preserved with the greatest care, and that, in estimating the strength or richness of that beverage, its fragrance should be much more attended to, than either its bitterness or its astringency. This aro- matic substance, which is supposed to be an oil, is extremely volatile, and escapes into

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the air with great facility, as is observed by it's filling a room with it's fragrance, if suffered to remain uncovered, and at the same time losing much of it's flavour/'

CRANBERRY.-VACCINIUM MACROCARPUM.

In Botany, a Genus of the Octandria Monogynia

Class.

Tins fruit, which is so much esteemed in tarts, or with cream, is a native of England, and is found growing in the peaty bogs of Sussex, Cumberland, Norfolk, Lancashire, and in other marshy lands. Gerard calls the fruit fen-berries: " they grow," says he, " in fennie places, in Cheshire and Staffordshire, where I have found them in great plentie." Valerius Cord us called them oxycoccon; the Dutch term them fen grapes.

Dr. Withering states, that at Longton, in Cumberland, there is a considerable traffic carried on in cranberries ; that on the market days, during the gathering season, the sale of these berries amounts to from twenty to thirty pounds sterling per day : many people in

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that neighbourhood make wine from cranber- ries ; but never having tasted this liquor, I can give no account of it's quality. The English cranberries, which are preserved in bottles with no other care than keeping them dry, are very superior to those large cran- berries imported from the northern parts of America, which are now so common in the shops of London. These berries, being pack- ed in large casks, must undergo a fermenta- tion during the voyage, which consequently deprives them of a part of their natural fla- vour. Cranberries are also imported from Russia and Germany ; and during this last year great quantities have been brought from New Holland, which are smaller, and darker coloured, than those brought from America, and very superior in flavour. Cranberries are found growing in many parts of Spain and Hungary. They are the produce of damp swampy lands only : but the idea that they will not bear transplanting, is erroneous, the late Sir Joseph Banks having planted some near a pond in his grounds at Spring Grove, which have produced fruit beyond calcula- tion. This information may be worth the attention of those who have marshy or brook land, as a matter of profit ; and to those who have ornamental water in their gardens or

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parks, it would be found an embellishment to the banks ; it being an elegant little fruit on the ground, where it trails, and spangles the grass with its red and variegated berries.

Sweden produces abundance of cranber- ries, but they are only used for cleansing plate in that country.

'A new species of cranberry is now culti- vated in this kingdom, which has been called snowberry, on account of the colour of the fruit : it was brought from Nova Scotia in the year 1760 by Mr. Jonathan Laycock, and is stated to be found in the swamps of Cyprus also. This berry has a perfumed taste, like eau de noyau, or bitter almonds : it is reared by Mr. Joseph Knight, of Little Chelsea, and several other nurserymen near the metropolis. Another variety was brought from Madeira in 1777 '9 which requires the shelter of the green- house ; and the Jamaica cranberry, which was introduced the following year, will not thrive in this country except in the stove.

Cranberries are of an astringent quality, and esteemed good to restore the appetite : they were formerly imagined efficacious in preventing pestilential diseases.

CUCUMBE R.-CUCUM IS.

In Hot any i a Genus of the Moncecia Synge- nesia Class.

THE cucumber, which is one of the coldest fruits, is evidently a native of a warm cli- mate ; and by all the researches I have been able to make, I conclude it belongs to the soil of some parts of Asia and Africa. It was known to the Grecians, as their earliest writers on natural history have mentioned it, and in particular recommend that the seeds should be steeped for two days in milk and honey before they are set, to make the fruit sweeter and pleasanter. Pliny men- tions the great quantities that grew in some parts of Africa, and particularly in Barbary. All vegetables are so formed as to per- petuate themselves by seed in the climate where they originate; for if this was not the case, every species of plant that is not

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cultivated, would soon cease to exist; and the cucumber has never been found to grow in the natural state in any part of Europe.

Columella is the oldest author who gives any direction for forwarding cucumbers by artificial means. " Those who wish for them early/' says he, " should plant the seeds in well dunged earth, put into osier baskets, that they may be carried out of the house, and placed in warm situations when the weather permits; and as soon as the season is advanced, the plants may be sunk in the earth with the baskets, or wheels may be put upon large vases, that they may be brought out with less labour ; notwith- standing they ought/' continues he, " to be covered with specularia" which seem to have been transparent stones, that the Romans were in the habit of cutting thin, so as to admit light, and keep out the air, glass being un- known at that period.

It is related by Pliny, " that Tiberius the emperor was so fond of cucumbers, and took such pleasure and delight in them, that there was not a day, throughout the year, passed over his head, but he had them served up at his table. The beds and gardens wherein they grew, were made*upon frames, so as to be removed every way with

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wheels ; and in winter, during the cold and frosty days, they could be drawn back into certain high covered buildings, ex- posed to the sun, and there housed under roof." These appear to be the earliest ac- counts of the forcing of plants which we read of in ancient times. It is probable, also, that artificial heat was used ; as we find, by the remains of their villas in this country, how perfectly the Romans were acquainted with the method of warming their rooms with flues.

Pliny says, " To make a delicate salad of cucumbers, boil them first, then peel them from the rind, and serve them up with oil, vinegar, and honey/'

Mr. Alton mentions the cucumber as be- ing first cultivated here in the year 1575, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This appears to be an error, as cucumbers were very com- mon in this country in the reign of Edward the Third; but being unattended to during the wars of York and Lancaster, they soon after became entirely unknown, until the reign of Henry the Eighth, when they were again introduced to this kingdom. (Gough's British Topography, vol. I. p. 134.,)

Gerard gives the earliest directions for making hot beds for cucumbers in this

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country, which was in 1597* when gardening was in it's infant state. He directs, that they should be covered with mats over hoops, as glasses were riot then known.

Lord Bacon, who wrote about the same period, says, " cucumbers will prove more ten- der and dainty if their seeds be steeped (little) in milk : the cause may be, for that the seed being mollified in uiilk, will be too weak to draw the grosser juices of the earth, but only the finer :" he adds, " cucumbers will be less watery if the pit where you set them be filled up half way with chaff or small sticks, and then pour earth upon them ; for cucumbers, as it seemeth, do exceedingly affect moisture, and over-drink themselves, which this chaff or chips forbiddeth." This great author also states, that " it hath been practised to cut off the stalks of cucumbers, immediately after bearing, close by the earth ; and then to cast a pretty quantity of earth upon the plant that remaineth, and they will bear the next year fruit, long before the or- dinary time. The cause may be, for that the sap goeth down the sooner, and is not spent in the stalk or leaf, which remaineth after the fruit ; where note, that the dying in the winter of the roots of plants that are annual, seemeth to be partly caused by the

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over-expence of the sap into stalk and leaves; which being prevented, they will superannuate, if they stand warm." Miller informs us, that the cuttings of cucumbers, taken off about five or six inches long, from healthy plants in the summer crop, at the end of September or beginning of October, planted in pots of rich mould, plunged into the bark bed and shaded until they have struck, will produce fruit before Christmas. It is also recorded in Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, that Thomas Fowler, gardener to Sir Nathaniel Gould, at Stoke Newington, presented King George the First with a brace of well-grown cucum- bers, on New Year's Day, 1721. The seeds from which they were raised were sown on the 25th of September.

His late revered Majesty had his table supplied with cucumbers, at all seasons of the year, by Mr. Aiton, under whose care the Royal Gardens of this kingdom have pro- duced, in the highest perfection, nearly all the known fruits of the world.

Cucumbers are much less used in their na- tural state than formerly, among wealthy fami- lies, but they are in great request for stews and made dishes, and when preserved they are es- teemed one of the most agreeable sweetmeats. As a pickle, girkins have been long admired ;

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but whoever purchases them, should be care- ful to get them free from any substance that may have been used to colour them.

Lunan, in his account of the sativus, or cul- tivated cucumber, says, " although cucumbers are neither sweet nor acid, they are consi- derably acescent, and so produce flatulency, cholera, diarrhoea/' &c. Their coldness and flatulency may be likewise in part attributed to the firmness of their texture.

They have been discharged, with little change, from the stomach, after having been detained there for forty-eight hours. By this means, therefore, their acidity is greatly in- creased; hence oil and pepper, the condi- ments commonly employed, are very useful to check their fermentation. Another condi- ment is sometimes used; viz. it's skin, which is bitter, and may therefore supply the place of aromatics ; but it should only be used when young.

Brookes states, that the cucumber is unfit for nourishment, and is generally offensive to the stomach, especially if not corrected with a good deal of pepper as well as vinegar. The seeds, he states, are reckoned among the four greater cold seeds, therefore emulsions of them have been prescribed in burning fevers, &c.

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Cowper has beautifully described the method

To raise the prickly and green coated gourd, So grateful to the palate ; and when rare, So coveted ; else base and disesteem'd, Food for the vulgar merely.

The Rev. Griffith Hughes, in his Natural History of Barbadoes, mentions the wild cu- cumber-vine as indigenous to that part of the world. It is called by Father Plumier, an- guria fructu echinato eduli: he describes the fruit as a small cucumber, whose surface is covered with many soft pointed prickles : it is sometimes eaten ; but is esteemed to be of too cold a nature to be wholesome.

Lunan, in his Hortus Jamaicensis men- tions the small wild cucumber as being a native of Jamaica, where it grows very plen- tifully, and is often used with other herbs in soups, and is a very agreeable ingredient : the rind is thickly beset with blunt prickles. Sloane mentions it as a pale green oval fruit, as big as a walnut, and says it is eaten very greedily by sheep and cattle.

The ancients used the wild cucumber as

a sovereign remedy in various complaints.

" The best kind," says Pliny, " was found in

Arabia, and the next about Cyrene and

Arcadia/'

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It was from the juice of these cucumbers that they procured the medicine called elate- rium, .which, Theophrastus states, could be kept good two hundred years ; and for fifty years it would be so strong and full of virtue, that it would put out the light of a candle or lamp. Pliny says, " to try good elaterium, it is set near to a lighted candle, which it causes to sparkle upwards and downwards."

Elaterium was used not only as a pur- gative, but against the sting of scorpions, and for the dropsy : with honey and oil, it was used for the quinsy and diseases of the windpipe: it was said to cure dimness and other imperfections of the eyes, the ring- worm, tetter, &c. as well as the swelling kernels behind the ears.

The juice of wild cucumber leaves dropped with vinegar into the ears, was thought a good remedy for deafness. A decoction of the fruit being sprinkled in any place, will drive away mice; it was also said to cure the gout, &c.; indeed, so many virtues were attributed to it by the ancients, that if we were inclined to give credit to them, it would cause our wonder to find they had any com- plaint uncured.

The Romans had also many superstitious opinions respecting these wild cucumbers.

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Wives who wished for children wore them tied round their bodies; and they were brought into houses by the midwife, but carried out, in the greatest haste, after child- birth.

Columella has recorded a variety of wonderful stories respecting the garden- cucumber; and some English authors, of great celebrity, have stated, that when a cucumber vine is growing, if you set a pot of water, about five or six inches distance from it, it will shoot so much in twenty- four hours as to touch it: but that it will shrink from oil, and turn fairly away from it.

The gourd

And thirsty cucumber, when they perceive Th' approaching olive, with resentment fly Her fatty fibres, and with tendrils creep Diverse, detesting contact.

Phillips.

CURRANT-TREE.— RIBES.

In Botany, a Genus of the Pentandria Monogynia Class.

THIS agreeable and wholesome fruit is un- doubtedly a native of our country : it was formerly found growing in the wild state, in woods and hedges in Yorkshire, Durham, and Westmorland, as well as on the banks of the Tay and other parts of Scotland. As a further proof of its being a northern fruit, we have no account of its having been at all known to the ancient Greeks or Romans, who have been very accurate in describing all the fruits known in their time. It seems not to have grown so far south as France ; for the old French name of groseilles d'outremer evidently bespeaks it not 'to have been a native of that country, and even at the pre- sent time their language has no appropriate

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name for it distinct from the gooseberry. The Dutch also acknowledge it not to have been indigenous to Holland, where it was called besskins over zee. Whether the Dutch first procured this fruit from Britain, or from any other northern countries, we must acknow- ledge ourselves indebted to the gardeners of that country for so improving the size, if not the flavour of this fruit.

The English name of currant seems to have been taken from the similitude of the fruit to that of the small Zante grapes, which we call currants, or Corinths, from Corinth, where this fruit formerly grew in great abund- ance, and which are so much used in this country for cakes, puddings, &c.

The Italians seem to have no other name for the currants than uvette, little grapes. At Geneva they are called raisins de Mars. The currant does not appear in the list of fruits published by Thomas Tusser in 1557, which I have transcribed to shew what fruits were cultivated in the latter part of Queen Mary's reign.

Apples of all sorts, apricots, barberries ; boollesse, black and white ; cherries, red and black ; chesnuts ; cornet plums ; damisens, white and black; filberts, red and white; gooseberries ; grapes, white and red ; green

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or grass plums ; hurtil berries ; rnedlers, or ineles ; mulberries ; peaches, white and red ; peeres of all sorts ; peer plums, black and yellow; quince-trees; raspis; reisons; small nuts ; strawberries, red and white ; service trees ; wardens, white and red ; walnuts ; wheat plums.

Currants were not distinguished from gooseberries by any particular name at that period ; and even in Gerard's time, they were considered as a species of the gooseberry. He says, in his account of the latter fruit, " We have also in our London gardens another sort altogether without prickes, whose fruit is verie small, lesser by much than the com- mon kinde, but of a perfect red colour, where- in it differeth from the rest of his kinde/'

Lord Bacon, who wrote about fifty years after Tusser, has noticed them : he says, " The earliest fruits are strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, corrans, and after them early apples, early pears, apricots, rasps, and after them damisons, and most kinds of plums, peaches, &c. ; and the latest are apples, war- dens, grapes, nuts, quinces, almonds, sloes, brierberries, hops, medlers, services, corne- lians, &c/'

Currants are a fruit of great importance in this country : they are so easily propa-

1S8

gated, that every cottage gardener can rear them ; and they are likewise so regular in bearing, that it is seldom they are injured by the weather. At the dessert, they are greatly esteemed, being fo.und cooling and grateful to the stomach ; and they are as much ad- mired for their transparent beauty, as for their medicinal qualities, being moderately refrigerant, antiseptic, attenuant, and ape- rient. They may be used with advantage to allay thirst in most febrile complaints, to lessen an increased secretion of bile, and to correct a putrid and scorbutic state of the fluids, especially in sanguine temperaments: but in constitutions of a contrary kind, they are apt to occasion flatulency and indiges- tion. Brookes says, they strengthen the sto- mach, excite appetite, and are good against vomiting.

Besides the red and the white currant, the salmon colour, or champaigne, is culti- vated for variety. The currant is a fruit that will ripen early, when planted in a warm situation, and may be retarded so as to be gathered in good condition in the month of November, when they are planted in a northern aspect : thus, with care, a skilful gar- dener will furnish a dessert of this fruit for -six months, without the aid of artificial heat.

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Currants will keep for years in bottles, re- taining all their qualities for tarts, &c. if they are gathered perfectly dry, and not too ripe. They only require to b^ kept from the air, and in a dry situation. I have found it an advantage to pack them in a chest, with the corks downwards ; and if the vacua be filled up with dry sand, it would insure their preservation.

The red currant gives the finest flavour for jelly.

The wine made from the white currants, if .rich of the fruit, so as to require little sugar, is, when kept to a proper age, of a similar flavour to the Grave and Rhenish wines ; and I have known it preferred as a summer table wine. Even in London this agreeable beverage may be made at less ex- pence than moderate cider can be bought for. Diluted in water, this wine is an excellent drink in the hot season, particularly to those of feverish habits. It makes an excellent shrub; and the juice is a pleasant acid in punch, which, about thirty years back, was a favourite beverage in the coffee-houses in Paris.

The best English brandy I have tasted, was distilled from weak currant wine, by a gentleman at Windsor ; and I have no doubt

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but it could be made superior to the common brandies, imported from France, were it en- couraged, and certain restrictions taken from the distiller.

The black currants, which were formerly called squinancy berries, on account of their great use in quinsies, are natives of Sweden and the northern parts of Russia, as well as the northern counties of England, where they have been found in their natural state, growing in alder swamps, and in wet hedges by the banks of rivers. In some parts of Siberia, the black currants are said to grow to the size of hazel-nuts. The inhabitants of that country make a drink of the leaves : in Russia a wine is made of the black cur- rants; and it is also made in some parts of England.

The jelly made from these currants is recommended in most complaints of the throat : they are also esteemed cleansing, pel- lent, and diuretic : an infusion of the roots is useful in fevers of the eruptive kind.

The inner bark of all the species of the currant tree, boiled in water, is a popular remedy in jaundice ; and some medical men have recommended it in dropsical com- plaints.

The currant-tree that was brought from

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the isle of Zante, by our Levant traders, and first planted in England in the year 1533, I conclude was the vine that produces the small grapes which we call currants, and of which the English use more than all the rest of the world together. This fruit grows in great abundance in several places in the Ar- chipelago. We have a factory at Zante, from whence we import them so closely pressed by treading, that they are often obliged to be dug out with an iron instru- ment, the natives thinking we use them as a dye.

Currant trees produce their fruit on small snags, that come out of the former year's wood : in pruning, care should be taken not to injure that part; but the shoots may be shortened or thinned as soon as the leaves are off. They require least room, and have a neat appearance, in private gardens, when planted as espaliers; and the fruit is thought to ripen better.

DATE.-DACTYLUS.

A Species of the Palma, or Palm Tree.— Date Tree, Phamix Dactylifera. In Bo- tany, of the Dicecia Triandria Class.

THE palm-tree is a native of the eastern countries, and has been known to grow in the deserts of Arabia and Syria from the earliest ages. Dates appear to have been the first food which the Israelites found in the wilderness of Shur. " And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees; and they encamped there by the waters/' (Exodus, chap. xv. verse 27-) The ancients esteemed dates next to the vine and olive.

The palm-trees are very lucrative to the Arabs and other inhabitants of the desert, where the fruit forms a principal part of their food, particularly in all that part of the Zaara which is near Mount Atlas, where they grow but little corn, and chiefly depend

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on this fruit for subsistence. In this part of the world, forests of date-trees may be seen, some of which are several leagues iri circumference. The Grecian and Roman authors have given full accounts of this fruit. It is related that Alexander's army having met with dates of such a delicious quality, many, who could riot forbear eat- ing too plentifully, died. There is one kind of date described by the ancient authors, that would inebriate and overturn the brain.

The Babylonian, or Royal Dates, were most esteemed : these, in ancient times, were reserved for the kings of Persia, and are said to have grown only in one hortyard or park at Babylon, which was annexed to the Persian crown. The dates at Jericho, in Jewry, were also in high estimation with the ancients, who made both bread and wine of them. Pliny, who has written at great length upon this fruit, mentions forty- nine kinds of dates, varying according to the country where they grew; some of which were white, black, or brown, some were round, others in the shape of a finger, some very small, and others he describes as being as large as the pomegranate. One species of the date, the Lotus, was much cultivated 2

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in Italy, and is by some supposed to be the fruit by which the companions of Ulysses were enchanted, and forgot their native country.

Italy, and the coast of Spain, have been renowned for palm-trees more than two thou- sand years : " but the dates/' says Plinj', " never come to maturity or ripeness, nor were they ever known to grow without being planted :" this caused him to state that they were foreign trees.

The Arabs eat dates without seasoning, for they have a very agreeable taste when they are fresh, and afford wholesome nourishment. These people dry and harden them in the sun, to reduce them to a kind of meal, which they preserve for food when they undertake long journeys across the deserts; and they will subsist a considerable time on this simple nourishment : pieces of the date-bread di- luted in water afford a refreshing beverage. The Arabs likewise strip the bark and fi- brous parts from the young date-trees, and eat the substance that is in the centre. It is very nourishing, and has a sweet taste, and they call it the marrow of the date- tree : they also eat the leaves when they are young and tender, mixed with lemon- juice, as a salad. The male flowers are also

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eaten, when tender, in the same manner. The fruit before it is ripe is somewhat as- tringent, but when thoroughly mature, is of the nature of the fig. A white liquor, known by the name of date-milk, is drawn from the palm-tree. To obtain it, all the branches are cut from the summit of one of these trees ; and after several incisions have been made in it, they are covered with leaves, in order that the heat of the sun may not dry it: the sap then drops into a vessel placed to receive the liquor. The milk of the date-tree has an agreeable sweet taste when new : it is very refreshing, and is given even to sick people. Thus has Providence reared a blessing in the sanely desert for the wanderer.

Even the stones of dates, though very hard, are not thrown away : they are bruised and laid in water to soften, when they become good food for sheep and camels.

The Egyptians make an agreeable con- serve of the fresh dates and sugar. The Arabs weave mats and other things of the same kind from the old leaves; and from the filaments which arise from the stumps of the branches, they fabricate both ropes and sails.

Among the trees of Egypt, there is none

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more common than the date-tree, both onffle sands as well as on the cultivated districts. It requires no attention, and is very pro- fitable, the fruit being in great demand, par- ticularly that in the neighbourhood of Ro- setta, which is delicious. The branches are cut off with the dates upon them before they are thoroughly ripe, and thrust into baskets made for the purpose, which have no other aperture than a hole, through which the branches project. The dates thus packed up, ripen in succession, and boats are laden with them, and sent to Cairo. — Could they not be brought to England in this state ?

The timber is so durable, that it is thought incorruptible by the natives. It is used for making beams and implements of husbandry, as also for javelins, and the trees often grow to a hundred feet in height. There are but few trees which are used for so many valuable purposes, and I know of none where the sexual distinctions are so evident. It is the female tree which produces the fruit, and on which account it is cultivated in greater numbers ; but in order to obtain the fruit, the orientalists, who live upon it, plant male trees also ; and it is no uncommon practice for their enemies, in time of war, to cut down the male trees, which prevents

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the others from producing dates, and causes famine* The number of female trees cul- tivated in Asia, is much greater than that of the males, the former being more profit- able.

The sexual organs of the date-tree grow upon different stalks; and when they are in flower, the Arabs cut the male branches to impregnate the female blossoms : for this purpose, they make incisions in the trunk of each branch which they wish to produce fruit, and place in it a stalk of male flowers: without this precaution, the date-tree would produce only abortive fruit. In some parts the male branches are only shaken over the female blossoms. This practice was known to the ancients, and is accurately described by Pliny, who says, " if the male tree be cut down, his wives will afterwards become bar- ren, and bear no more dates, as if they were widows. So evident is the copulation of the sexes in the date-trees/' says he, "that men have devised to make the females fruitful, by casting upon them the blooms and down that the male tree bears, and sometimes by strewing the powder which he yields upon them/'

Linnaeus, in his Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants, speaking of the date-tree, says,

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" A female date-bearing palm, flowered many years at Berlin, without producing any seeds ; but the Berlin people, taking care to have some of the blossoms of the male tree, which was then flowering at Leipsic, sent them by the post; they obtained fruit by these means ; and some dates, the offspring of this impregnation, being planted in my garden, sprung up, and to this day continue to grow vigorously/'

Pfere Labat, in his Account of America, mentions a tree which grew near a convent in Martinique, that produced a great quantity of fruit, which came to maturity enough for eating : but as there was no other tree of the kind in the island, it was desirable to propagate it, but none of the seeds would grow. He conjectures that the tree might probably be so far impregnated by some neighbouring palm-tree, as to render it ca- pable of bearing fruit, but not sufficient to make the seeds prolific.

M. Geoffrey cites a story from Jovicus Pontanus, who relates, " that, in his time, there were two palm-trees, the one a male, the other a female, in the wood Otranto, fifteen leagues apart; that this latter was several years without bearing any fruit; till at length, rising above the other trees of

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the forest, so as it might see/' says the poet, " the male palm-tree at Brindisi, it then began to bear fruit in abundance/' M. Geoffrey makes no doubt but that the tree then only began to bear fruit, because it was in a condition to catch on it's branches the farina of the male brought thither by the wind.

It may appear to many persons almost incredible, that the pollen of the male flower should be conveyed to so great a distance ; but that it should be attracted by a tree of it's own species, will not create so much our wonder, when, with the least reflection, we must be satisfied that the glutinous moisture on the stigmata of flowers, has an attraction for the pollen of the anthera of it's kind only; else, when a variety of flowers were blossoming at the same time, we should have the rose impregnating the lily, and the wheat giving it's generating powder to the poppy. All animals and insects, when left to nature, couple with their kinds. Vegetables do the same, although it is now clearly ascertained that it is possible to make the stigma of one blossom receive the pollen of another, if it is prevented from taking that of it's own spe- cies ; and thus we have within these last few

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years so great a variety of new flowers and fruits.

The date-tree grows very rapidly, and will produce fruit in some countries in the third year, while in others it is from four to six years before it begins to bear : when ar- rived at maturity, it makes no change, but remains in the same state for three genera- tions, according to the account of the Arabs. Like most other fruits, the date requires cultivation to have it good, as the fruit which is produced from trees which have been raised from seed is poor and ill-tasted, while those trees which are reared from the shoots, give dates of a good quality.

The flowers of both sexes come out in very long bunches from the trunk between the leaves, and are covered with a spatha which opens and withers : those of the male have six short stamina, with narrow four- cornered anthers filled with farina. The female flowers have no stamina.

Dates are imported into this country in a dried state, similar to dried figs: when in good condition, they are much esteemed, and fetch a high price. At the present time, they are sold for five shillings the pound, although interior kinds may be

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bought much cheaper for medicinal purposes, for which they are principally used in England, being considered hard of diges- tion, and often causing the head-ache to those who eat them in quantities, and they create scorbutic complaints as well as the loss of teeth. In medicine, the qualities of dates are to soften the asperities of the throat, to assuage all immoderate fluxes of the stomach, and to ease disorders of the reins, &c. The oil and phlegm render them moistening and good to assuage coughs. They stop vomitings and fluxes, and are good for the piles when taken in red wine. (Barham.)

They are principally brought from Africa, Egypt, and Syria, but the finest come from Tunis.

Near Elete, in Spain, there is a wood consisting of two hundred thousand palm- trees, bearing dates. These trees furnish a curious traffic : the branches of them are bound up in mats to bleach the leaves, which in time become white ; they are then cut off, and sent in ship-loads to Genoa and other parts of Italy, for the grand procession of Palm Sunday. There is a great trade in them with Madrid also, where every house has it's blessed palm-branch. The

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dates seldom ripen so thoroughly as to keep well.

Hughes, in his Natural History of Bar- badoes, speaking of the date-tree, says, " The straightest and youngest branches, which grow near the summit of the tree, are much used here by the Jews, upon their Feast of Tabernacles: these they usually gild, and adorn with various flowers, and then carry them in procession to their synagogue/' He adds, " whether this is the same kind of palm that was used by the Israelites, we know not, or whether it is not here succe- daneously used as bearing the nearest re- semblance to it/

ELDER.— SAMBUCUS.

In Botany, a Genus of the Pentandria Trigynia Class.

THE common elder-tree is a native of Eng- land, and is found also in most parts of Europe, as it will grow on any soil, and in situations where few other trees would live.

The elder thrives near wet ditches, and is often seen growing on the ruins of old walls, or from the hollow of decayed trees : so hardy is this valuable and neglected tree, that it is found both in sheltered swamps and on the bleak tops of church towers.

The elder does not appear to have been used medicinally by the ancients, but the berries were employed by the Romans to dye the hair of the head black. If they be boiled in water, says Pliny, they are as good and wholesome to be.eaten as other pot-herbs.

Sir J. E. Smith has remarked, that this

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tree is, as it were, a whole magazine of physic to rustic practitioners.

The bark, leaves, flowers and berries, are used with advantage in medicine. The leaves are said to be purgative and emetic, and are applied externally for the piles and inflam- mations; an ointment is made also with them as well as the flowers : the latter are used inwardly as a carminative. Infusions made from the flowers while fresh, are gentle, laxa- tive, and aperient; when dry, they are found to promote the cuticular secretion, and to be particularly serviceable in erysipelatous and eruptive disorders. Sydenham directs three handfuls of the inner bark to be boiled in a quart of milk and water, till only a pint remains, of which one half is to be taken at night and the other in the morning ; and this repeated every day for those afflicted with the dropsy. Boerhaave recommends the expressed juice of the middle bark, given from a drachm to half an ounce, as the best of hydragogues when the viscera are sound.

Elder-flower water, the oil of elder, and elder syrup, are all used as medicines.

The berries are esteemed cordial, and use- ful in hysteric disorders ; and are often put into gargarisms for sore mouths and throats.

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The fungous excrescences, which are often found growing on the trunk of the elder-tree, bearing the resemblance of an ear, black in the inside and of a whitish colour on the out- side, (called auricula Judaorwn) are accounted good for inflammations and swellings of the tonsils, sore throats, and quinsies.

The wine made from elder-berries is too well known by families in the country to require any encomiums : it is the only wine the cottager can procure, and, when well made, is a most excellent and wholesome drink, taken warm before going to bed. It causes gentle perspiration, and is a mild opiate ; and may be taken safely, and with advantage, by those of costive habits.

If a rich syrup be made from ripe elder- berries and a few bitter almonds, when added to brandy it has all the flavour of the very best cherry-brandy.

The white elder-berries, when ripe, make wine, much resembling rich grape-wine.

The buds and the young tender shoots are greatly admired as a pickle.

The leaves of the elder-tree are often put into the subterraneous paths of moles, to drive those noxious little animals from the garden. If fruit-trees, flowering shrubs, corn, *>r other vegetables, be whipped with the

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green leaves of the elder branches, insects will not attach to them. An infusion of these leaves in water is good to sprinkle over rose buds, and other flowers, subject to blights and the devastations of caterpillars.

The wood of old elder-trees is so hard, and takes so good a polish, that it is often used as a substitute for the box- tree. From its toughness, it is used for tops for fishing rods, needles for weaving nets, butchers' skewers, &c. I find it was used by the Ro- mans to make pipes and trumpets, as Pliny says, " the shepherds were thoroughly per- suaded that the elder-tree, growing in a by- place out of the way, and where the crowing of cocks from any town cannot be heard, makes more shrill pipes and louder trumpets than any other/'

FIG.-FICUS.-CARICA.

Natural Order, Scabridce. In Botany, a Ge- nus of the Polygamia Tricecia Class.

THE fig-tree is evidently a native of that part of Asia, where the garden of Eden is gene- rally said to have been situated, as it is the only tree particularly named in those pas- sages of the Bible which relate to the creation and fall of man. " And they sewed fig- leaves together, and made themselves aprons/' It is a fruit that appears to have been highly esteemed by the Israelites, who brought figs out of the land of Canaan, when they were sent by Moses to ascertain the produce and strength of that country.

The fig-tree is often mentioned, both in the Old and New Testament, in a manner to induce us to conclude that it formed a principal part of the food of the Syrian nation. In the 25th chapter of the first book of

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Samuel, we read, that when Abigail went to meet David, to appease him for the affront given by Nabal her husband, she took with her, amongst other provisions, a present of two hundred cakes of figs.

When Lycurgus banished luxury from Sparta, and obliged the Spartan men to dine in one common hall, to enforce the practice of temperance and sobriety, every one was obliged to send thither his provisions month- ly, which consisted of about one bushel of flour, eight measures of wine, five pounds of cheese, and two pounds and a half of figs.

The Athenians were so choice of their figs, that it was forbidden to export them out of Attica. Those who gave information of this fruit being sold contrary to law, were called sykophantai, from two Greek words signifying the discoverers of figs ; and as they sometimes gave malicious informa- tion, the term was afterwards applied to all informers, parasites, liars, flatterers, impostors, &c. from whence the word sycophant is de- rived.

The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf under a fig-tree, proves that this fruit must have been early known in Italy.

The Egyptians and Greeks held this fruit

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in great estimation : it was their custom to carry a basket of figs next to the vessel of wine used in the Dionysia, or festivals in honour of Bacchus ; and it is related to have been the favourite fruit of Cleopatra, who was the most luxurious queen the world ever produced. The asp with which she termi- nated her life, was conveyed to her in a basket of figs.

Saturn, one of the Roman deities, was represented crowned with new figs ; he being supposed to have first taught the use of agriculture in Italy. There was a temple in Rome dedicated to this god, before which, grew a large fig-tree. The Vestals, when they removed this tree in order to build a chapel on the spot, offered an expiatory sacrifice : this happened about two hundred and sixty years after the foundation of the city.

The fig was a fruit much admired by the Romans, who brought it from most of the countries they conquered, and had so in- creased the varieties in Italy, by the com- mencement of the Christian era, that Pliny has furnished us with a description of twenty- nine sorts that were familiar to him. He says, " figs are restorative) and the best food that can be taken by those who are brought low by long sickness, and are on the recovery."

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He adds, " that figs increase the strength of young people, preserve the elderly in better health, and make them look younger, and with fewer wrinkles. They are so nutritive, as to cause corpulency and strength : for this cause/' continues he, " professed wrestlers and champions were in times past fed with figs/' This naturalist mentions the African figs as being admired ; but says, " it is not long since they began to grow figs in Africa." — These appear to have been of an early kind; for we find when Cato wished to sti- mulate the senators to declare war against Carthage, he took an early African fig in his hand ; then, addressing the assembly, he said, " I would demand of you how long it is since this fig was gathered from the tree?" and when they all agreed that it was fresh ga- thered, " Yes," answered Cato, " it is not yet three days since this fig was gathered at Carthage; and by it, see how near to the Avails of our city we have a mortal enemy/' With this argument he prevailed upon them to begin the third Punic war, in which Car- thage, that had so long been a rival to Rome, was utterly destroyed. " The Lydian figs/' says Pliny, " are of a reddish purple colour; the Rhodian, of a blackish hue; as is the Tiburtine, which ripens before others. The

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white figs were from Herculaneum, rate, and Aratian ; the Chelidonian figs ard the latest, and ripen against the winter : some bear twice a year, and some of the Chalcidian kind bear three times a year/' The Romans had figs from Chalcis and Chios, &c. ; and many of their varieties, it appears, were named from those who first introduced or cultivated them in Italy. The Livian fig was so named after Livia, wife to the Emperor Augustus, who, it is said, made an unnatural use of it to poison her husband.

If the fig-tree was ever brought to this country by the Romans, it was, in all pro- bability, confined to the southern counties ; and not being generally cultivated, was de- stroyed when their villas were demolished. It is generally supposed that it was not plant- ed in England before the reign of Henry the Eighth, when luxury and the arts began to be encouraged, and noblemen's houses first put on the air of Italian magnificence. There are, at the present time, some fig-trees, of the white Marseilles kind, growing in the garden of the Episcopal Palace, at Lambeth, which are said to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, who brought them from Italy during the reign of Henry the Eighth. There is also a fig-tree of the white sort, at Mitcham,

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in the garden of the manor-house, formerly the private estate of Archbishop Cranmer ; and it is confidently stated to have been planted by that prelate : the stem measures thirty inches in girth.

At Oxford, in the botanic garden of the Regius Professor of Hebrew, is a fig-tree, which was brought from the East, and planted by Dr. Pocock, in the year 1648. Of this tree, the following anecdote is related : Dr. Kennicott, the celebrated Hebrew scholar and compiler of the Polyglot Bible, was pas- sionately fond of this fruit; and seeing a very fine fig on this tree that he wished to preserve, wrote on a label, " Dr. Kenni- cott's fig/* which he tied to the fruit. An Oxonian wag, who had observed the trans- action, watched the fruit daily, and when ripe, gathered it, and exchanged the label for one thus worded : " A fig for Dr. Kenni- cott."

We may conclude that the fig-trees, which are stated to have been planted in the time of Henry the Eighth, either had not fruited, or were but little known at that period ; as Tusser, who has furnished us with a list of the fruits which were grown in Eng- land in the succeeding reign, has not men- tioned the fig-tree ; and Lord Chancellor

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Bacon, who wrote still later, never mentions it as being cultivated in England, though, from the exalted situation he filled, and the circles in which he moved, he must have had great opportunities of knowing the earliest introduction of trees and plants, which occu- pied a part of his attention. The almond, which was not introduced until the days of Elizabeth, is particularly mentioned by him as one of our fruits ; but the fig is not in his list. He says, " there be divers fruit trees in the hot countries, which have blos- soms, and young fruit, and ripe fruit, almost all the year, succeeding one another/' And it is said, the orange hath the like with us for a great part of summer ; and so also hath the fig.

The Hortus Kewensis informs us, that the fig-tree was planted in this country in 1548; and we find, in Turner's Herbal, that the fig- tree was cultivated here previous to 1562. Gerard says, in 15.97, that " the fruit of the fig-tree never cometh to maturity with us, except the tree be planted under a hot wall/' Parkinson also, in 1629, says, that " if you plant it not against a brick wall, it will not ripen so kindly ;" but much must depend on the situation of the country.

There is an orchard of fig-trees at Tarring,

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near Worthing, in Sussex, where the fruit grows on standard trees, and ripens as well as in any part of Spain; these trees are so regularly productive, as to form the principal support of a large family. Although the or- chard does not exceed three-quarters of an acre, there are upwards of 100 trees, that are about the size of large apple-trees, the branches extending near twenty feet each way from the trunk. Mr. Loud, the pro- prietor of this little figgery, informs me, that he gathers about 100 dozen per day, during the season, and that he averages the trees to produce him about 20 dozen each : the fruit ripens in August, September, and October, a part of the year when the neighbouring wa- tering places are frequented with fashionable company, that insures a ready sale for this agreeable fruit, at good prices.

The second crop I find has occasionally ripened: the fruit, which, although smaller, is exceedingly sweet, ave of the white and pur- ple varieties. Two of these trees are now about seventy-five years old, having been planted in the year 1745 by John Long, who raised them from some old ones in an ad- joining garden, near the ruins of the palace of Thomas-a-Becket in that town, who, tra- dition says, brought these trees from Italy,

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and planted them himself. The soil of the garden is a deep black loam on chalk.

The trees are but seldom and sparingly pruned, which I conclude is the cause of their being so prolific, as I have remarked that fig- trees rarely produce much fruit where the knife is regularly used. When they grow too luxuriantly, it has been found better to destroy a part of their roots, and to fill up the space with stones or broken bricks, than to prune the branches too much. Mr. Knight, the president of the Horticultural Society, observes, that there cannot be a more defec- tive manner of cultivating the fig-tree than that which is generally practised by gardeners, — of training them against walls, with their branches perpendicular upwards; the wood, by this means, becomes too luxuriant to pro- duce fruit.

The ancients believed that there existed a sympathy between plants, and they therefore planted rue near their fig-trees, which was said to make the fruit sweeter; and that the rue not only grew more luxuriantly, but more bitter, by being thus neighboured by the fig- tree. I think this is very probable, without having any thing to do with sympathy, as trees and plants will naturally draw juices from the earth most congenial tc their nature:

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the rue may therefore exhaust the earth of those properties suitable for the nourishment of bitter plants, and leave the fig-tree to thrive from a soil, which the former has qualified, by consuming the particles of the earth that are pernicious to sweet fruits. Shakspeare seems to have been of this opinion when he wrote —

u And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen best, Neighboured by fruit of baser quality."

We have now in this country a great va riety of this most delicious and wholesome fruit, which is, I believe, the only kind we possess that has sweetness, without acidity or oiliness. It is nourishing, easy of digestion, and grateful to the stomach; and is much esteemed in the countries where it is culti- vated: but in England, it seems to please only the refined palates of the higher order of society. In some parts of the coast of Sussex, where this fruit ripens in perfection, I have known it not only neglected by the middle and lower classes, but even mentioned with derision in their disputes.

The fig-tree is distinguished from all other trees we know of, by it's bearing two succes- sive and distinct crops of fruit in one year, each crop being produced on a distinct set of shoots. This climate rarely allows the second

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crop to come to maturity, except where they are housed. At the Royal Gardens at Kew, there is a fig-house fifty feet in length, where, under the superintendence of Mr. Aiton, this fruit has been forced to the highest pitch of perfection: Mr. Alton's chief reliance has been, I understand, on the second crop. In the year 1810, the royal tables were supplied with more than two hundred baskets of figs from that fig-house, fifty baskets of which were from the first crop, and one hundred and fifty baskets from the second. In one instance, Mr. Alton had this fruit ripe in January, and sent excellent figs to the palace on the late Queen's birthday, the 18th of that month.

The caprification of figs was practised by the ancients in the same manner as it is now attended to by the inhabitants of the Archi- pelago; and it is described by Theophrastus, Plutarch, Pliny, and other authors of antiqui- ty. It is too curious a circumstance in the history of the fig-tree to be omitted, as it fur- nishes a convincing proof of the reality of the sexes of plants. The flowers of the fig-tree are situated within the pulpy receptacle, which we call the fruit. Of these receptacles, in the wild fig-tree, some have male flowers only, and others have male and female.

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In the cultivated fig, these are found to contain only female flowers, that are fecun- dated by means of a kind of gnat bred in the fruit of the wild fig-trees, which pierces that of the cultivated, in order to deposit its eggs within; at the same time diffusing within the receptacle the farina of the male flowers: without this operation, the fruit may ripen, but no effective seeds are produced. Hence it is that we can raise no fig-trees from the fruit of our own gardens, having no wild figs to as- sist the seed. They are consequently raised by cuttings, or by layers.

In many parts of the Grecian islands, the inhabitants pay such attention to the caprifi- cation of the cultivated figs, that they attend daily for three months in the year to gather these little flies from the wild fig-trees, and to place them on the fig-trees in their gardens, by which means they not only get finer fruit, but from ten to twelve times the quantity: thus one of the most minute insects is, by the attention of man, made a principal cultivator of fruit.

It is a curious fact, that fresh-killed veni- son, or any other animal food, being hung up in a fig-tree for a single night, will become as tender, and as ready for dressing, as if kept for many days or weeks in the common man-

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ner. A gentleman, who lately made the expe* riment, assured me that a haunch of venison which had lately ^been killed, was hung up in a fig-tree when the leaves were on, at about ten o'clock in the evening, and was removed before sun-rise in the morning, when it was found in a perfect state for cooking ; and he adds, that in a few hours more it would have been in a state of putrefaction.

In the neighbourhood of Argenteuil, near Paris, are immense fields covered with fig- trees : the inhabitants of the former town derive their chief support from the culture of this fruit; and I feel confident that there are many situations on the coast of Sussex, between the towns of Arundel and Shoreham, where, if figs were cultivated, the London markets could be amply supplied with this nutritious fruit.

We import the best dried figs from Turkey, Italy, Spain, and Provence. In the south of France, they are prepared by dipping them in scalding hot lye made of the ashes of the fig-tree, and then dried in the sun.

For medical purposes, figs are chiefly used in emollient cataplasms and pectoral decoc- tions.

The wood of the fig-tree is of a spongy texture, and, when charged with oil and

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emery, is much used on the continent by locksmiths, gunsmiths, and other artificers in iron and steel, to polish their work. This wood is considered almost indestructible, and on that account was formerly used in Egypt and other eastern countries, for embalming bodies.

I shall conclude my account of the fig- tree, by the well-known story of Timon of Athens, who was called misanthrope, for his aversion to mankind and to all society. He once went into the public place, where his appearance as an orator soon collected a large assembly, when he addressed his coun- trymen, by informing them that he had a fig-tree in his garden, on which many of the citizens had ended their lives with a halter ; and that, as he was going to cut it down, he advised all those that were inclined to leave the world, to hasten and go hang themselves in his garden.

FILBERT.-CORYLUS.

A Species of the Hazh-Tree. In Botany, a Genus of the Mon&cia Polyandria Class.

FILBERTS were originally brought out of Pontus into Natolia and Greece, and were therefore called Pontic nuts : from thence they were procured by the Romans, and brought into Italy, where they acquired the name of Abellani, or Avellana nuts, from Abella or Avellins, a town of Campania; where the best were cultivated, (Plin. b. xv. c. 22.) and from thence arose the French name Aveline.

These nuts still continue to be cultivated in the same situation ; and, according to Mr. Swinburn's account, the whole face of the neighbouring valley is covered with them, and which, in good years, brings in a profit of 60,000 ducats (£l 1,250.)

Fuller, who wrote in the year 1660, says, " gardening was first brought into England,

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for profit, seventy years ago/' in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He adds, " gardening crept out of Holland into Kent/'

It is supposed, that within a few miles round Maidstone in that county, there are more filberts growing at the present time, than in all England besides, there being se- veral hundred acres planted with filbert-trees in the vicinity of that town. The London market is entirely supplied from thence with these nuts, which are excellent in quality, and, if quite ripe, will keep good for several years placed in a dry room.

Filberts are not only much more agree- able than the common nuts, but are esteemed wholesome and nourishing when taken with moderation. The cream of these nuts is good for the stone and heat of urine. Emulsions may also be made of them. The Romans used them with vinegar and wormwood seed for the yellow jaundice.

Filberts are not found to answer well but on very few soils : they seem to like a stony, sandy loam ; for in rich soils they grow too luxuriantly to produce fruit, but 'much de- pends on the skill and management in prun- ing these trees. In Kent, they are not suf- fered to grow above five or six feet high, and are kept with a short stem, like a goose-

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berry-bush, and very thin of wood, somewhat in the shape of a punch-bowl.

From the class in which the tree is ranged in botany, it will be observed, that the male and female flowers grow quite distinct. The male flower is a scaly catkin, resembling the bullion in fringe ; it appears in autumn, and waits for the expansion of the female blossom in the spring, from whence the nut arises : this is very diminutive, but of a fine crimson colour; therefore the pruner should make himself acquainted with the wood that produces each blossom, and not destroy too many of the male flowers that will fall from the tree after they have discharged their pol- len, to the benefit of the future fruit.

To preserve filberts, they should be ga- thered quite ripe, and laid for some days on the floor of a room, where the sun can get in, to dry them effectually.

The Byzantium nut, although much es- teemed for it's flavour and size, is but little cultivated in this country, and very rarely seen in our markets. This nut was brought from Constantinople, before Constantine had given his name to that city ; and I am much inclined to think, that the Greeks procured it from more eastern countries. They were first cultivated in this country by Mr. John

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Ray, in 1665, and are generally called Cob* nuts.

Pliny informs us, that Vitellius brought the nuts, called fistichs, into Italy, a little before the death of Tiberius, and that Flac- cus Pompeius, who served in the wars with Vitellius, carried them into Spain. Nuts are now grown in that country in such quan- tities, according to the account of Mr. Swin- burn, that from a single wood, near Recus, sixty thousand bushels have been collected in one year, and shipped from Barcelona, whence they are called Barcelona nuts.

It was the custom among the Romans for the bridegroom, on the night of his mar- riage, to scatter nuts among the boys, inti- mating that he dropt boyish amusements, and thenceforth was to act as a man. (Serviw. Pliny.)