PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
1 7 
Shakespeare’s spelling of the word “ Apricocks ” takes us 
at once to its derivation. It is derived undoubtedly from 
the Latin ftrcecox or prcecoquus , under which name it is referred 
to by Pliny and Martial; but, before it became the English 
Apricot it was much changed by Italians, Spaniards, French, 
and Arabians. The history of the name is very curious and 
interesting, but too long to give fully here; a very good 
account of it may be found in Miller and in “Notes and 
Queries,” vol. ii. p. 420 (1850). It will be sufficient to say 
here that it acquired its name of “the precocious tree,” because 
it flowered and fruited earlier than the Peach, as explained in 
Lyte’s “Herbal,” 1578: “There be two kinds of Peaches, 
whereof the one kinde is late ripe, . . . the other kinds are 
soner ripe, wherefore they be called Abrecox or Aprecox.” 
Of its introduction into England we have no very certain 
account. It was certainly grown in England before Turner’s 
time (1548), though he says, “We have very few of these trees 
as yet; ” 1 but the only account of its introduction is by 
Hakluyt, who states that it was brought from Italy by one 
Wolf, gardener to King Henry the Eighth. If that be its true 
history, Shakespeare was in error in putting it into the garden 
of the queen of Richard the Second, nearly a hundred years 
before its introduction. 2 
In Shakespeare’s time the Apricot seems to have been grown 
as a standard ; I gather this from the description in Nos. 2 
(see the entire passage s.v. “Pruning” in Part II.) and 3, and 
from the following in Browne’s “ Britannia’s Pastorals ”— 
“Or if from where he is 3 he do espy 
Some Apricot upon a bough thereby 
Which overhangs the tree on which he stands, 
Climbs up, and strives to take them with his hands.” 
Book ii. Song 4. 
1 “Names of Herbes,” s.v. Malus Armeniaca. 
2 The Apricot has usually been supposed to have come from Armenia, 
but there is now little doubt that its original country is the Himalaya 
(M. Lavaillee). 
3 On a Cherry tree in an orchard. 
C 
