KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. I33 



one." Later on " And. Hill " is quoted again, and his advice 

 is to plant the trees against an east wall, and to protect them 

 with a " course cloth .... in the night or in cold weather." 

 Piatt also mentions, as rather an unusual practice, that " Sir 

 Francis Walsingham caused divers Apricock trees to be planted 

 against a south Wall, and their Branches to be borne up also 

 against the wall, according to the manner of vines, whereby his 

 plumbs did ripen three or four weeks before any other." In 

 1611, " £100 was paid to Wilham Hogan, keeper of His 

 Magesties still-house and garden at Hampton Court, for plant- 

 ing the walls of the said garden with apricot trees, peach trees, 

 plum trees, and vines of choice fruits."^ 



Gerard figures four varieties of peach. " The white peach 

 with meate about the stone of a white colour ; the red peach 

 with meate of a gallant red colour, like wine in taste and 

 therefore marvellous pleasant ; the D'auant peach with meate 

 of a golden colour ; and the yellow peach, of a yellow colour on 

 the outside, and likewise on the inside ... of the greatest 

 pleasure and best taste of all the other of his kinds." He 

 makes no mention of the nectarine, which, however, by Par- 

 kinson's time had become well known. Six varieties are de- 

 scribed in a chapter to themselves, although he says " they 

 have been with us not many years." He gives twenty varieties 

 of peach, and a woodcut illustrates six of these ; two of them 

 are considerably smaller than the apricot on the same plate. 

 Although Piatt has faith that a peach grafted on a nut will 

 have no kernel, he cannot quite believe— although he gives the 

 recipe— that a peach-tree watered three days running with 

 goat's milk, when beginning to flower, will produce pome- 

 granates. Most of his other observations on their culture are 

 practical and correct. They like, he says, a clay soil, and to 

 be waterlogged at the roots destroys them. They will grow 

 from stones, and bring forth a " kindly peach," but they thrive 

 best when grafted on a plum-stock. Bacon mentions nec- 

 tarines as coming in September, along with " peaches and 

 melocotones." Of the latter, Parkinson writes it " is a yellow 

 fair peach . . . and is better relished than any of them." 



The only " curran," so called by Gerard, is the small grape or 

 ^ Issue Rolls of the Exchequer. James I., by F. Devon, 1836. 



