84 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



indigenous plant in this country. Tusser remarks that they 

 are to be planted in September : 



" The Barbery, Respis, and Gooseberry too 

 Looke now to be planted as other things doo. 

 The Goosebery, Respis, and Roses, al three 

 With strawberies vnder them trimly agree." 



The greatest addition to the number of cultivated fruits was 

 the apricot, which was certainly introduced before the middle 

 of the sixteenth century, probably by Henry VIII. 's gardener. 

 Wolf, about 1524. Turner mentions it in both his works under 

 Malus Armeniaca, and gives Abrecok, or Abricok, as the 

 EngHsh name, though he maintains that " an hasty peche is a 

 better and a fitter name for it. But so that the tre be well 

 knowen, I pase not gretely what name it is knowen by." The 

 reason he gives for his name is that the fruit ripens so much 

 earlier than the peach. The word " apricot " implies the same 

 idea, being derived from the Latin prcecoqua, or prcecocca. He 

 says, in 1548, " We have very fewe of these trees as yet," and 

 in 1551, " I have sene many trees of thys kynde in Almany, 

 and som in England." In the beautiful old garden at Little- 

 cote, in Berkshire, there are two apricot-trees which still bear 

 fruit, supposed to have been planted when the tree was first 

 introduced into this country. 



Tusser, 1573, gives a list of fruits to be set or removed in 

 January, and it includes Apricots, or Apricocks, as he calls them. 



The following is his list : 



