esteemed; and the cotignac of Orleans had such a
reputation, that boxes of this fruit were always given to kings, queens,
and princes on entering the towns of France. It was the first offering
made to Joan of Arc on her bringing reinforcements into Orleans during the
English siege.

Several sorts of cherries were known, but these did not prevent the small
wild or wood cherry from being appreciated at the tables of the citizens;
whilst the _cornouille_, or wild cornelian cherry, was hardly touched,
excepting by the peasants; thence came the proverbial expression, more
particularly in use at Orleans, when a person made a silly remark, "He has
eaten cornelians," _i.e._, he speaks like a rustic.

In the thirteenth century, chestnuts from Lombardy were hawked in the
streets; but, in the sixteenth century, the chestnuts of the Lyonnais and
Auvergne were substituted, and were to be found on the royal table. Four
different sorts of figs, in equal estimation, were brought from
Marseilles, Nismes, Saint-Andeol, and Pont Saint-Esprit; and in Provence,
filberts were to be had in such profusion that they supplied from there
all the tables of the kingdom.

The Portuguese claim the honour of having introduced oranges from China;
however, in an account of the house of Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, in
1333, that is, long before the expeditions of the Portuguese to India,
mention is made of a sum of money being paid for transplanting
orange-trees.

[Illustration: Figs. 81 and 82.--Culture of the Vine and Treading the
Grape.--Miniatures taken from the Calendar of a Prayer-Book, in
Manuscript, of the Sixteenth Century.]

In the time of Bruyerin Champier, physician to Henry II., raspberries were
still completely wild; the same author states that wood strawberries had
only just at that time been introduced into gardens, "by which," he says,
"they had attained a larger size, though they at the same time lost their
quality."

The vine, acclimatised and propagated by the Gauls, ever since the
followers of Brennus had brought it from Italy, five hundred years before
the Christian era, never ceased to be productive, and even to constitute
the natural wealth of the country (Fig. 81 and 82). In the sixteenth
century, Liebault enumerated nineteen sorts of grapes, and Olivier de
Serres twenty-four, amongst which, notwithstanding the eccentricities of
the ancient names, we believe that we can trace the greater part of those
plants which are no