THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 3I3 



John Parkinson/ the best hortictdtural authority for the period during 

 which he maintained his famous garden in London and wrote his great 

 herbal, apothecary to James I and botanist to Charles I, furnishes the first 

 full accoimt of gooseberries in his Paradisi in Sole, 1629. Let us see what 

 the gooseberry was, and what its uses in English gardens 300 years ago. 



" GOOSEBERRIES OR FEABERRIES 



"Wee have divers sorts of Gooseberries, besides the common kinde, 

 which is of three sorts, small, great, and long. For wee have three red 

 Gooseberries, a blew and a greene. 



"The common Gooseberrie, or Feaberrie bush, as it is called in divers 

 Countries of England, hath oftentimes a great stemme, covered with a 

 smooth darke coloured bark, without anie thome thereon, but the elder 

 branches have here and there some on them, and the yoimger are whitish, 

 armed with verie sharpe and cruell crooked thorns, which no mans hand 

 can well avoide that doth handle them, whereon are set verie greene and 

 small cornered leaves cut in, of the fashion almost of Smallage, or Hawthorne 

 leaves, but broad at the stalke; the flowers come forth single, at everie 

 joint of the leafe one or two, of a purpHsh greene colour, hollow and turning 

 up the brims a little: the berries follow, bearing the flowers on the heads of 

 them, which are of a pale greene at the first, and of a greenish yellow colour 

 when they are ripe, striped in divers places, and cleare, almost transparent, 

 in which the seede lyeth. In some these berries are small and round; in 

 others much greater; a third is great, but longer than the other: all of them 

 have a pleasant winie taste, acceptable to the stomacke of anie (but the 

 long kinde hath both the thicker skin and the worser taste of the other) 

 and none have been distempered by the eating of them, that ever I could 



hear of. 



"The first of the red Gooseberries is better knowne I thinke then the 

 rest, and by reason of the small bearing not much regarded; the stemme 

 is somewhat bigge, and covered with a smooth darke coloured barke, the 

 yovmger branches are whiter, and without anie thome or pricke at all, 

 so long, weake, small, and slender, that they lye upon the grounds, and 

 will there roote againe: the leaves are like unto the former Gooseberries, 

 but larger: the flowers and berries stand single, and not manie to bee found 

 anie yeare upon them, but are somewhat long, and are as great as the ordi- 

 narie Gooseberry, of a darke brownish red colour, almost blackish when 

 they are ripe, and of a sweetish taste, but without any great delight. 



"The second red Gooseberry riseth up with a more straight stemme, 

 covered with a brownish barke; the young branches are straight likewise, 

 and grow not so thicke upon it as the former red kinde, and without any 



• Parkinson, John Par. Ter. 560. 1629. 



