Fruit: An Illustrated History

A visual feast of stunning illustrations and authoritative text.

Fruit appears in art, mythology, and nearly every religious belief. The uses of fruit are varied: for food, drink, paint pigment, decoration, and medicine. The cultivation of fruit encouraged the development of plant propagation methods, grafting, hybridization, and selective breeding to produce ever improved varieties.

In this book Blackburne-Maze challenges myths such as the story of Johnny Appleseed whose real name was John Chapman. The fable that he indiscriminately scattered seeds is admittedly the worst way to propagate fruit trees. In truth he established a chain of successful apple nurseries that stretched from Pennsylvania to Indiana.

Fruit is illustrated with 300 large, striking and superbly reproduced color illustrations from the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society. Created by the finest botanical artists, these graceful illustrations are notable for their historical value in chronicling the evolution of fruit and as masterpieces in their own right. Included are varieties of fruit now extinct or no longer in widespread cultivation.

The book is organized into the 4 major fruit groups and covers 61 varieties:

• Pome (apples, pears, etc.)
• Stone (plum, cherry, peach, etc.)
• Berry (currant, blueberry, etc.)
• Exotic (fig, citrus, olive, almond, etc.)

A companion volume to the critically acclaimed and extremely popular, Flora, this book will appeal to gardeners, art lovers, and food connoisseurs.