4 



THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



call Alligant: but we have a Vine or Grape come to us under the name of 

 the Alligant Grape, as you shall finde it set downe hereafter among the 

 Grapes; and therefore it is likely to be but an opinion, and no truth in this, 

 as it may be also in the other." 



In John Rea's Flora, Ceres and Pomona, 1665, is a catalog of the garden 

 plants of the time. From the introduction to The Third Book, Pomona, 

 one would expect to find raspberries mentioned if they were commonly 

 grown at the time. Rea^ says that his book on Pomona: , "Acquaints you 

 with the finest Garden-fruits, Vines & Berries, our English Nurceries do 

 afford; as also with some Flower-bearing Trees, Shrubs, and Greens, more 

 familliar than those you find in the first book; with the order that is to be 

 used in their Propagation, Planting and Improvement." 



Rea discusses most excellently all of the tree fruits we now grow in 

 America including such rarities as the service-tree, medlar, persimmon, 

 cornvis, and mulberry, and has full and very good descriptions and cultural 

 directions for gooseberries, currants, and barberries, but does not mention 

 the brambles or the strawberry. 



For a century after Parkinson's great herbal was published the rasp- 

 berry was barely spoken of in the dozen or more garden and orchard books 

 of the times. Just a hundred years after, Batty Langley's Pomona appeared, 

 to take rank as about the best of the early English books on fruit. Here 

 one might expect a fuller discussion of the cultivated brambles, yet there 

 is scarcely as much as in Parkinson. Langley- names but three kinds 

 as follows: " We have but three Kinds of Rasberries in England, viz. 

 The White, the Red, and the Purple: The wood of the White and Red is of 

 a bright Colour, and almost smooth; but that of the Purple is a dark Brown, 

 and very thick set with small prickly Excrescences." 



Of these he^ says: "The Scarlet Rasberry (Fig. V, Plate LVI) is the 

 most common, and first ripe Jime i, 1727; 'tis a very fragrant pleasant 

 Fruit, and a great Bearer. The White Rasberry mix'd with the Red, makes 

 a beautiful Appearance at the Table, and therefore we must not fail of 

 having some of them for that Purpose, notwithstanding that they are not 

 in such great Esteem as the Scarlet." 



The next account worth recording is that of Hitt^ in A Treatise of 

 Fruit-trees, 1757, in which four groups are named, for it can hardly be said 



• Rea, John F/om 3:203. 1665. 



* Langley, Batty Pomona 122. 1729. 

 'Ibid. 123. 



4 Hitt, Thomas Treat. Fridl-lr. 24H. 1757. 



