Fig

<p><span>The fig may be one of the first plants cultivated by humans, and as it predates the domestication of wheat, barley, and legumes it may therefore be the first known instance of agriculture. This is all based upon fossil records dating to about 9400BC coming from the early Neolithic village of Gilgal in the Jordan Valley. Fig growing in Britain goes back a long way too, and some suggest the fruit may have been introduced here by the Romans, as fig seeds have been found associated with Roman settlements. The first true record of a fig tree planted here is attributed to Cardinal Pole (later Archbishop of Canterbury) who planted a tree in the garden of the Palace at Lambeth around 1552. Figs were quite commonly grown in Britain throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,and they were usually planted on the south walls of stately houses whose aristocratic owners appeared to be the only ones to appreciate them, the lower classes having little regard for figs and often deriding them, as in the common saying "not worth a fig."</span></p>