HISTORY. 17 



rope, was introduced among the Romans at the 

 time of the Mithridatic war. The Plum was known 

 both to the Greeks and Romans ; and Pliny, who 

 sometimes dealt in the marvellous when writing 

 on fruits, asserts that they were grafted upon 

 apple stocks, producing what were called Apple- 

 Plums, and upon almond stocks, yielding both 

 fruits, the stone being like that of an almond. 

 And Virgil, with equal absurdity, speaks of grafting 

 Apples on planes, of adorning the wild ash with 

 the blossoms of the pear and represents swine as 

 crunching acorns under elms ; nor is it very long 

 since a few equally singular notions were held by 

 some moderns. 



The cultivation of fruit in Britain, from which 

 so much of our own was obtained, began to receive 

 attention with other rural improvements. The 

 earliest British writer on this subject, was Richard 

 Arnold, who published a chapter in his "Chronicles" 

 in 1502, "On the crafteof graftynge andplantynge 

 and alterynge of fruits, as well in color as in taste." 

 He was succeeded about 1538 by Tusser ; in 1597 

 by Gerard; in 1629 by Parkinson; in 1658 by 

 Evelyn; in 1724 by Miller; in 1791 by Forsyth; 

 soon after which the great improvements intro- 

 duced by the late president Knight, and followed 

 by Lindley, Thompson, and others, formed a new 

 era in the cultivation of fruits. The gradual pro- 

 gress df the art is indicated in part by the number 



