292 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



" They have in China a tree called Kagin, yielding 

 fruit twice a-year, which, by inversion, thrusts forth the 

 seed or kernels, like werts, or such excrescences, on the 

 outside of the fruit, and is in common to the East and 

 West Indies, who call it Ananas ; but the Chinese call it 

 Fam-polo-Mie ; it groweth in the provinces Quantung, 

 Kiangsi, and Fokien, and is supposed to have been brought 

 from Peru; the tree on which it groweth is not a shrub, 

 but an herb like unto Carduus ; they call it Cartriofoli, on 

 whose leaf a fruit groweth sticking unto its stalk, of so 

 pleasant and exquisite a taste, that it may easily obtain 

 the pre-eminency amongst the most noble fruits of India 

 and China; the spermatick faculty is innate in all the parts 

 thereof, for not only the seeds shed on the ground, but 

 its sprouts and leaves being planted, produce the like 

 fruits." 



Lord Bacon mentions this fruit in his Essay on Planta- 

 tions or Colonies, but does not notice that it had ever 

 been brought to Europe in his time ; nor do we meet with 

 any mention of its having been seen in this country prior 

 to 1657, when Cromwell the Protector received a present 

 of pine-apples. 



About two years previous to this time, the East India 

 Company of the United Provinces sent their first embassy 

 to the Emperor of China; and as they returned in 1657, 

 it is probable that they were the first who brought both 

 the fruit and plants to Europe, as John Nievhoff, who was 

 secretary to that embassy, mentions this fruit particularly, 

 and gives also an engraving of the plant in his History of 

 the Embassy, and says, " Here grows a well-tasted fruit, 

 called Ananas, which was at first brought from the West 

 into the East Indies, where it now is to be had in great 

 abundance. It is about the bigness of a citron, of a 

 yellow colour, and well scented ; full of juice, and plea- 

 sant in taste, if eaten when ripe ; for it is much like unto 



