1 2 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



also the apple and pear, the plum, the cherry, the fig, 

 and the walnut. That some of these in their crude form 

 are natives of Britain is quite true. But the harsh crab 

 and austere wild cherry are not to be confounded with 

 improved descendants fit for the orchard. Introducing 

 the eatable kinds, the Romans have as clear a title to be 

 considered the founders of British apple and cherry 

 culture as of the cultivation in our island of the vine. 

 The six or seven indigenous British fruits, eatable just as 

 they occur in the wilderness, and never cultivated for 

 market, have been mentioned above. Two others only 

 are palatable without cultivation, the wood strawberry 

 and the raspberry, and these would be all the Romans 

 found on their arrival. Let us not forget, however, that 

 pleasant little fruit-substitute which Caractacus himself 

 may not have disdained to eat, and which in another 

 immortal island was for certain not unknown to darling 

 Miranda 



"And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts." 



Though introduced by the Romans, the culture of several 

 of the fruits named above, after their departure, in all 

 likelihood, declined rapidly, and some of them may have 

 been lost. With the Normans, that other great people 

 to whom Britain owes so much, horticulture flourished 

 anew. In the gardens of the monasteries those grand 

 old asylums of literature and religion when everything 

 around was dark and rude along with medicinal plants 

 would certainly be cherished whatever good fruits were 



