188 BUSH-FRUITS 



date, and it is not unlikely that the gods, like many mortals of the 

 present day, were obliged to be content with the precarious supply 

 to be found growing at will in grove and glade. Palladeus, how- 

 ever, a Roman writer of the fourth century, mentions the rasp- 

 berry as one of the cultivated fruits of that time. From a work 

 written by Conrad Heresbach, entitled "Rei Rusticse," published 

 in 1570, and afterward translated by Barnaby Googe, it appears 

 that raspberries were little- attended to during that period. John 

 Parkinson, in his "Paradisus," published in 1629, speaks of red, 

 white and thornless raspberries as suitable for the English climate. 

 Stephen Switzer, in 1724, only mentions three kinds. George W. 

 Johnson, in his "History of English Gardening," published in 

 1829, gives the number of cultivated varieties as twenty-three. 

 From these detached notes it appears that although cultivated at 

 least as far back as the fourth century, it nevertheless did not 

 come to be considered a fruit of any importance and demand at- 

 tention until the close of the sixteenth century, or later. 



The raspberry never seems to have been held in such high 

 esteem for its medicinal properties as the blackberry. Gerard 

 Dewes, in his translation of "Dodoen's Niewe Herball," or "His- 

 torie of Plantes," published in 1578, enumerates the following 

 " vertues:" 



" The leaves, tender springes, fruit and roote of this Bramble 

 are not much unlyke, in vertue and working, to the leaves, shutes, 

 fruite and rootes of the other Bramble, as Dioscorides writeth. 



" The flowers of Raspis are good to be bruysed with hony, and 

 layde to the inflammations and hoate humours gathered togither in 

 the eyes, and Erysipelas or wilde fire, for it quencheth such hoate 

 burninges. 



" They be also good to be dronken with water of them that have 

 weake stomackes." 



The illustration (Fig. 29) shows a specimen of the text of this 

 work, giving the description, habitat and time of flowering of the 

 Framboye, Raspis or Hyndberie, as the raspberry was then called 

 in French, English and German, respectively. The figure of the 

 plant (Fig. 30) is reproduced from John Gerarde's "Historic of 

 Plantes," published in 1597. 



