FRUITS. CHAP. 



colours of red, white, and black, and the several uses of 

 all these are too well known to need any description. 



268. FIG. There are several sorts of figs, but some 

 of them will not ripen in England. Figs are raised either 

 from cuttings or layers, which are to be treated in the 

 manner directed under those heads, which see in the index. 

 The fig must stand against a wall, and a warm wall, too. 

 The great difficulty with regard to figs, is, that they must 

 be suffered to grow in their own way, without much 

 training or pruning ; and are therefore very unsightly 

 things. The ground in which they stand should be made 

 as rich as possible. They have the singularity that some 

 of their fruit is hardly formed at a time when part of it 

 is ripe, and that thus a succession of bearing is kept 

 up until the frost comes. ' As far as my observation 

 has gone, comparatively few people like figs, on account 

 of their mawkish taste ; but, in a very fine summer, the 

 fruit is good and rich, and the number of the fruit is ge- 

 nerally very great. 



269. FILBERD. This is a fruit well known to us all. 

 The tree, or rather, lofty shrub, is raised from suckers or 

 layers : the latter is best because those raised from 

 suckers, infest the ground with suckers. You cannot 

 propagate a filberd from seed, it being one of those plants 

 the seed of which does not, except by mere^ accident, 

 produce fruit equal to that of the tree from which it 

 comes. The plants raised from layers, or the suckers, 

 ought to be put into a nursery in rows two feet apart, 

 and at two feet distance in the row. They will then 

 become little trees by the end of two years, and they 



