The Apricot. 97 



standing like avenues of old English pears, from thirty 

 to forty feet high, with a circumference of trunk, near 

 the base, of four to five feet." 



The best kinds of apricot for cultivation in England 

 are those called Large Early, Blenheim, Royal, and 

 Moor Park. Hitherto this fruit has not succeeded well 

 in the forcing-house, but the prospects, under Mr. Rivers' 

 modes of treatment, are decidedly encouraging, and in 

 this we may rejoice, the flavour of the fruit, when ripened 

 under glass, being immensely superior to such as it 

 acquires in the open air. Being very perishable, yet 

 fairly solid, the apricot recommends itself excellently 

 for preserving, and no less so for the method of drying 

 practised in Italy, where the fruit is cut in half, the 

 stone removed, and then spread out awhile in a spent 

 oven. These dried halves are the " Italian apricots " of 

 the shops. 



In the names borne by fruits, as already illustrated, 

 we have many curious examples of the vicissitudes of 

 words. The derivation of " quince " from Cydon has 

 been cited as one of the oddest. That of " apricot " is 

 still more remarkable. According to Professor Skeat, it 

 begins in the old Roman epithet applied to this fruit 

 prcecox, " early," meaning the fruit which precedes others 

 of its class. Another form of the word was pracoquus, 

 having for its old neuter plural prcecoqua. Travelling 

 into Greece, prtzcoqua became TrpaiKOKtov, plural irpaiKOKia, 

 and this being adopted by the Arabs, with whom the 

 tree was now beginning to be planted extensively in 

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