20 HISTORY, IMPROVEMENT, AND NOMENCLATURE. 



rature and science, was accompanied with a corresponding 

 increase in the arts of cultivation. We have but little in- 

 formation, however, on this subject, till about three hun- 

 dred years ago. England, France, and the Low Countries, 

 seem to have taken the lead in improvement. The earliest 

 British writer on the culture of fruit, was Richard Arnold, 

 who published a chapter in his " Chronicles," in 1502, "On 

 the crafte of graftynge and plantynge, and alterynge of 

 fruits, as well in color as in taste." He was succeeded about 

 1538, by Tusser, who mentions apples, pears, peaches, apri- 

 cots, cherries, plums, grapes, medlars, barberries, filberts, 

 gooseberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The fig, the 

 orange, and the pommegranate, were introduced about the 

 same period ; so that, by the middle of the sixteenth century 

 there were cultivated all the kinds or primary varieties 

 known at the present day. 



Tusser was followed in 1597, by Gerard, and in 1629, by 

 Parkinson. The former thus speaks of the apple of his 

 time : 



" The fruit of apples do differ in greatness, form, color, 

 and taste ; some covered with a red skin, others yellow or 

 green, varying exceedingly; some very great, some little, 

 and many of a middle sort ; some are sweet of taste, or 

 something sour ; most are of a middle taste, between sweet 

 and sour ; the which to distinguish I think it impossible, 

 notwithstanding I hear of one that intended to write a pe- 

 culiar volume, of apples, and the use of them." 



The number of varieties described or mentioned by Par- 

 kinson in 1629, show their cultivation to have become ex- 

 tensive ; among them were, 



Apples, 58 varieties ; 



Pears, 64 



Plums, 61 



Peaches, 21 " 



Cherries, 36 



Grapes, 23 



Nectarines, 5 " 



Apricots, 6 



Figs, 3 



Parkinson was followed by Evelyn, who flourished during 

 the middle of the seventeenth century, and gave by his 



