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LXXXIII. An Account of the Fig Tree, which was planted 

 in 1648, and is now growing in the Garden at Christ Church, 

 Oxford. In a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. William 

 Baxter, Curator of the Botanic Garden, Oxford, Cor- 

 responding Member of the Horticultural Society. 



Read August 17th, 1819. 



Sir, 



I have, agreeably to your request, made some inquiries 

 respecting the history of the Fig tree, brought into England, 

 by Dr. Pocock, and now known by the name of the Pocock 

 Fig. 



The tree, which has been supposed to be the first of the 

 sort introduced into England, is now growing in the garden 

 of the Regius Professor of Hebrew, at Christ Church, Ox- 

 ford. The traditional account given of it is, that it was 

 brought from Aleppo by Dr. Pocock, and planted there in 

 1648. 



In 1806, Dr. White, late Regius Professor of Hebrew, 

 caused an engraving on copper to be made of it, which re- 

 presents the whole tree, as it then apeared. At the top of 

 the engraving is inscribed, " Arbor Pocockiana, imagine 

 accuratissima aere expressa." And at the bottom, " Ficus ar- 

 bor, ex Syria ohm regione a celeberrimo Edvardo Pococ- 

 kio, circiter centum et septuaginta abhinc annis, prima 

 quidem sui generis, in Britanniam advecta, hodieque in 

 horto Professoris Ling. Heb. apud Oxonienses, virens et 



