50 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



Hebrews did not know it, and have no name for it 

 in their language ; they would have known it, and 

 the Romans have had it much earlier than they 

 had if the fruit had come from Egypt. Though 

 found abundantly now in Algeria, it is evidently of 

 recent introduction, having naturalised itself in 

 districts where the stones have been thrown away 

 from|[cultivated specimens. 



The apricot [is frequently found wild in the hills 

 between the Jumna and the Ganges, and from a 

 writer on the botany of the Himalayas and Cashmere 

 we learn that the apricot is so generally planted 

 around the villages that there are few without them, 

 the fruit being eaten fresh, and also dried, whilst a 

 very fine oil is expressed from the stones. The use 

 to which this oil is still put is mentioned in a recent 

 book of travel. Mrs. Bridges, in "A Lady's Tramp 

 Round the World," gives an account of a Thibetan 

 ball at which she was present in the Himalayas, the 

 room in which the festivity was held being lighted 

 with oil made from apricot stones. In some parts of 

 Cashmere apricots and other fruit trees form a 

 perfect jungle. The dried fruit has been brought 

 from Cashmere to India in considerable quantities ; it 

 is called Klioot-banee. 



The apricots on the Himalayas, at 12,000 ft. 

 elevation, are so hard, that a native when carrying 

 his load of them to market, thinks nothing of sitting 

 upon his burden — a strong contrast this to the custom 

 of a well-known character in an eastern county at 

 the early part of the century. This gentleman, 

 being the owner of a large estate some seventy miles 

 from London, and having gardens so prolific that 

 the produce was the source of considerable revenue 

 to him, after the supply of his own table had been 

 provided, was accustomed to send the surplus pro- 

 duce to Covent Garden ; and the wall fruit when ripe 

 being very perishable, and easily injured, he directed 

 that it should be placed in shallow baskets to be 

 carried on women's heads, the tread of a man being 

 considered by him too heavy for the conveyance of 

 the luscious load. 



The apricot tree was late in coming to England, 

 being introduced here from Italy, as far as we can 

 ascertain, in the year 1524, by Woolf, gardener to 

 Henry VIII., who, it appears, introduced several 

 valuable fruits at about the same period. It is 

 strange that a fruit so well known in the east should 

 not sooner have reached our western regions, but we 

 know that in Britain there were, up to the sixteenth 

 century, but few establishments save the monasteries 

 which had orchards or gardens attached to them. 

 Happily, during the reigns of Henry VIII. and 

 Elizabeth the spirit of discovery pervaded the land, 

 and one of the results of an acquaintance with new 

 lands, and that no mean result either, was the 

 introduction of many fruits and flowers which had 

 hitherto been unknown to us. By the middle of the 

 seventeenth century most common fruit trees were 



cultivated in sufficient abundance to render their 

 importation unnecessary. 



The progress of this improvement, however, was 

 but slow, owing to the want of nurseries for such 

 trees ; and persons who lived in remote places, and 

 wished to introduce into their gardens new varieties 

 of fruit, were obliged, Hartlib writes, "often to send 

 100 miles for them ; " no trifling obstacle, let us 

 remember, these " 100 miles," when roads were bad 

 and there were no facilities for their conveyance such 

 as we now possess. 



It is no part of my intention in these "jottings," 

 to teach my readers the best method of cultivating 

 fruit trees. I will not pretend to recommend one 

 sort above another, one system of pruning before 

 another, though, if any of my readers should be so 

 generous as to set before me ever so large a variety, I 

 will undertake to give my opinion as to kinds, when 

 I have been made free to place them under the 

 crucial test of a somewhat sensitive palate. Still, I 

 may be allowed to give them the advice of a wiser 

 gardener than myself, as to the time for planting 

 trees and for gathering their fruits. 



Old Thomas Tusser, under " January's Husban- 

 dry," writes as follows : — . 



" Set chestnut and walnut. 

 Set filbert and smallnut. 



" Peach, plum-tree and cherry. 

 Young bay and his berry, 

 Or set their stone, 

 Unset leave none. n 



" Sow kernel to bear 

 Of apple and pear ; 

 All trees that bear gum 

 Now set as they come. 



" Now set or remove 

 Such stocks as ye love." 



For gathering, under September's Husbandry: — 



" The moon in the wane, gather fruit for to last. 

 But winter fruit gather when Michel is past ; 

 Though michers* that love not to buy or to crave, 

 Make some gather sooner, the few for to have. 

 Fruit gathered too timely will taste of the wood, 

 Will shrink and be bitter, and seldom prove good ; 

 So fruit that is shaken and beat off a tree. 

 With bruising and falling soon faulty will be." 



DUCKING : A LINCOLNSHIRE SKETCH. 

 By Gregory Benoni. 



[Continued from /. 40.] 



AFTER a short rest to allow the old master to 

 recover from the exertion and excitement inci- 

 dental to the capture, we proceeded to the eastern pipe 

 by a hidden pipe running through the sheltering copse 

 at the foot of the sand-hills. Here, instead of employ- 

 ing the dog, which must not appear too often, for fear 

 it should cease to excite curiosity, the decoy-ducks were 

 called to our aid. There are a number of cross-bred 

 birds originating from the wild and domesticated 

 varieties. They live in the decoy, and are fed in the 



* Michers = pilferers. 



