163 



Bacon, who wrote still later, never mentions 

 it as being cultivated in England, though, 

 from the exalted situation he filled, and the 

 circles in which he moved, he must have had 

 great opportunities of knowing the earliest 

 introduction of trees and plants, which occu- 

 pied a part of his attention. The almond, 

 which was not introduced until the days of 

 Elizabeth, is particularly mentioned by him 

 as one of our fruits ; but the fig is not in 

 his list. He says, " there be divers fruit 

 trees in the hot countries, which have blos- 

 soms, and young fruit, and ripe fruit, almost 

 all the year, succeeding one another/' And 

 it is said, the orange hath the like with us 

 for a great part of summer ; and so also hath 

 the fig. 



The Hortus Kewensis informs us, that the 

 fig-tree was planted in this country in 1548; 

 and we find, in Turner's Herbal, that the fig- 

 tree was cultivated here previous to 1562. 

 Gerard says, in 15.97, that " the fruit of the 

 fig-tree never cometh to maturity with us, 

 except the tree be planted under a hot wall/' 

 Parkinson also, in 1629, says, that " if you 

 plant it not against a brick wall, it will not 

 ripen so kindly ;" but much must depend on 

 the situation of the country. 



There is an orchard of fig-trees at Tarring, 



