



APRICOT. 23 



fruit whatever. We have/' continues he, " two sorts, 

 sHpernatia, which we have from the Sabines ; arid popu- 

 laria, which grow common everywhere." Thus Pliny 

 has furnished us with an account of the apricot, and 

 omitted to mention from whence it was first procured. 



Sonnini, in his Travels in Egypt, observed that in some 

 parts of that country near the plains of Siout, you find 

 abundance of small apricots: they are called Mischmisch, 

 and have an agreeable flavour. They dry them, and after- 

 wards dress them as sauce to meats. These dishes, he 

 observes, usually garnish the tables of the rich, and are of 

 the best sort which come from Egyptian kitchens. 



Thunberg describes the apricot-tree as growing to a 

 large size in Japan. Grosier says it covers the barren 

 mountains to the west of Pekin ; and Pallas tells us that 

 it is commonly wild on the whole tract of Caucasus. 



The Chinese have a great variety of fruiting apricots, 

 and they not only preserve the fruit both dry and in 

 liquor, but make lozenges from the clarified juice, which 

 dissolved in water yields a cool refreshing beverage. 

 From the wild tree, the fruit of which has little pulp, but 

 a large kernel, they extract a great quantity of oil. 



The Persians have a delicious kind of apricot which 

 they call tokm ekshems, signifying sun's seed. 



The apricot-tree was first brought to England from 

 Italy, in the year 1524, by Woolf, gardener of Henry the 

 Eighth, who it appears introduced several valuable fruits 

 about the same period. (Gough's British Topography, 

 vol. i. page 133.) 



Turner, whose work was written in 1564 and published 

 in 1568, says, " I have sene many trees of thys kynde in 

 Almany, and som in England." Gerarde in 1597 notices 

 two varieties that he tells us " do grow in my garden, and 

 now-adaies in many other gentlemen's gardens through- 



