The statutes of Charlemagne show us that almost all these fruits were reared in his gardens, and that some of them were of several kinds or varieties.

A considerable period, however, elapsed before the finest and more luscious productions of the garden became as it were almost forced on nature by artificial means.  Thus in the sixteenth century we find Rabelais, Charles Estienne, and La Framboisiere, physician to Henry IV., praising the Corbeil peach, which was only an inferior and almost wild sort, and describing it as having “dry and solid flesh, not adhering to the stone.”  The culture of this fruit, which was not larger than a damask plum, had then, according to Champier, only just been introduced into France.  It must be remarked here that Jacques Coythier, physician to Louis XI., in order to curry favour with his master, who was very fond of new fruits, took as his crest an apricot-tree, from which he was jokingly called Abri-Coythier.

[Illustration:  Fig. 80.—­Cultivation of Fruit, from a Miniature of the “Proprietaire de Choses” (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris).]

It must be owned that great progress has been made in the culture of the plum, the pear, and the apple.  Champier says that the best plums are the royale, the perdrigon, and the damas of Tours; Olivier de Serres mentions eighteen kinds—­amongst which, however, we do not find the celebrated Reine Claude (greengage), which owes its name to the daughter of Louis XII., first wife of Francis I.

Of pears, the most esteemed in the thirteenth century were the hastiveau, which was an early sort, and no doubt the golden pear now called St. Jean, the caillou or chaillou, a hard pear, which came from Cailloux in Burgundy and l’angoisse (agony), so called on account of its bitterness—­which, however, totally disappeared in cooking.  In the sixteenth century the palm is given to the cuisse dame, or madame; the bon chretien, brought, it is said, by St. Francois de Paule to Louis XI.; the bergamote, which came from Bergamo, in Lombardy; the tant-bonne, so named from its aroma; and the caillou rosat, our rosewater pear.

Amongst apples, the blandureau (hard white) of Auvergne, the rouveau, and the paradis of Provence, are of oldest repute.  This reminds us of the couplet by the author of the “Street Cries of Paris,” thirteenth century:—­

  “Primes ai pommes de rouviau,
  Et d’Auvergne le blanc duriau.”

  ("Give me first the russet apple,
  And the hard white fruit of Auvergne.”)

The quince, which was so generally cultivated in the Middle Ages, was looked upon as the most useful of all fruits.  Not only did it form the basis of the farmers’ dried preserves of Orleans, called cotignac, a sort of marmalade, but it was also used for seasoning meat.  The Portugal quince was the most 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.