THE APRICOT. 39 



CHAPTER II. 

 The Apricot. 



THE APRICOT (Prunus Armeniaca) is one of the most deli- 

 cious of our hardy fruits. It is said to have been first 

 introduced into this country from Italy by one Wolff, 

 gardener to King Henry VII. The Chinese are reputed 

 to have cultivated it for some 3,000 years before the 

 Christian era; and we learn also that it has long been 

 grown in Northern India and Thibet. It was known to 

 the ancient Greeks and Romans. Dioscorides, a Greek 

 writer, refers to it under the name of Armenica; and 

 Pliny, the Roman naturalist, also mentions it under that 

 of " Praecocia " in the first century of the Christian era. 

 The latter states that the Apricot had then been intro- 

 duced into Italy about thirty years. 



The Apricot does not appear to have been grown very 

 largely for some time after its introduction. Quaint old 

 Parkinson, in his " Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris," 

 published in 1629, describes six sorts as being grown in 

 his day. He says, <c The great Apricocke, which some 

 call the long Apricocke, is the greatest and fairest of all 

 the rest." Of this he gives an illustration. Philip 

 Miller, in his " Gardener's Dictionary " of 1731, describes 

 eight varieties as grown at that period. These were 

 the Masculine, Orange, Algiers, Roman, Turkey, Trans- 

 parent, Breda, and Brussels. Some of these sorts are 

 still cultivated and enumerated in nursery lists as, for 

 example, the Breda, Roman, and Turkey. 



It was not, perhaps, till the last century that the Apri- 

 Cot began to be generally grown. Then it seems to have 

 become very popular, even cottagers growing it largely 

 on their house walls. The great drawback, however, to the 

 cultivation of the Apricot in our climate is its early- 

 flowering character. Blooming, as it does, in March, 



