242 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



which were pitched inside, the jars, when filled, were 

 reversed and buried in pits. Of the Amician pear 

 we are told, "it keeps well in raisin wine." It seems 

 certain that both the Greeks and Romans made cider, 

 or rather perry, using for this purpose the Pyrus 

 sylvestris, whose acid fruit is well suited to the 

 purpose. 



Of this, or a similar kind, is the French, " Poirier a 

 cidre," which has become wild in many of the forests 

 in France. The Pyrus nivalis, or snow pear, though 

 not found in England, is largely cultivated in Austria, 

 some parts of Germany, Italy, and France ; its specific 

 name, as well as its German name, " Schneebirne," 

 being given it from the fact of its being made into a 

 conserve by the Austrian peasants when the moun- 

 tains are covered with snow. But I must not enter 

 into further descriptions of the varieties, which being 

 "so many," says Gerarde, "to describe them apart, 

 were to send an owl to Athens, or to number those 

 things that are without number." 



We do not know whether the apple is really a 

 native of Britain, though our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 

 knew it, and from their name " seppel " is derived our 

 English "apple." 



There is extant the roll of the household expenses 

 of the Countess of Leicester, a daughter of King 

 John, in which the only fruits mentioned are apples 

 and pears, and from this period at least considerable 

 attention appears to have been paid ito the planting 

 and cultivation of both fruits, whenever, that is to 

 say, the warlike spirit of the age did not interfere 

 with the pursuit of so peaceful an art as that of 

 gardening. 



Still we find Gerarde, four centuries later, writes 

 with great earnestness, endeavouring to persuade his 

 readers to more energy in this direction. "I have 

 seen," says he, speaking of apple trees, "in the 

 pastures and hedge-rows, about the grounds of a 

 worshipful gentleman, dwelling two miles from 

 Hereford, called Mr. Roger Bodnome, so many trees 

 of all sorts, that the servants drank for the most part 

 no other drink but that which is made of apples. 

 The quantity is such that by the report of the 

 gentleman himself, the parson hath for tithe, many 

 hogsheads of cyder ; the hogs are fed with the fallings 

 of them, which are so many that they make choice 

 of those apples they do eat and will not taste of any 

 but the best. An example doubtless to be followed 

 of gentlemen that have land and living. But envy 

 saith, the poor will break down our hedges and we 

 shall have the least part of the fruit. But forward in 

 the name of God, graff, set, plant and nourish up trees 

 in every corner of your land. The labour is small, 

 the cost is nothing, the commodity is great. Your- 

 selves shall have plenty, the poor shall have 

 somewhat in the time of want to relieve their 

 necessity, and God shall reward your good minds and 

 diligence." 



Other somewhat less important reasons he no 



doubt recognised, which should lead to the cultivation 

 of the fruit in the numerous remedies for which he 

 prescribed its use. 



Amongst these are some which might even now 

 find favour with the fair sex, if they will but give 

 them a trial. Here are one or two of his suggestions : 

 "There is likewise made an ointment with the pulp 

 of apples and swine's grease and rosewater ; which 

 is used to beautifie the face and to take away the 

 roughness of the skin, which is called in shops, 

 pomatum, of the apples whereof it is made. Apples 

 cut in pieces and distilled with a quantitie of 

 camphere and buttermilk, take away the scarres and 

 marks gotten by the small pockes, being washed 

 therewith when they grow into their state and 

 ripeness ; provided that you give unto the patient a 

 little milke and saffron, or milke and mithridate to 

 drink, to expell to the extreme parts the venome 

 which may lie hid, and as yet not scene." Were the 

 old " Master in Chirurgerie " to know the perfection 

 to which apples have now been brought, and could 

 he see the vast cargoes which each year are brought 

 us from America, he would surely rejoice in the fact 

 of the extended cultivation of the tree ! 



Pears, too, have received abundant attention of 

 late years, and though our climate is scarcely warm 

 enough for the maturing of the more luscious sorts, 

 we have still a very considerable number of varieties 

 under cultivation, and for the rest may be well 

 content to derive our supply from more favoured 

 climes. 



My "jottings" on apples and pears must conclude 

 by commending to all concerned the words of 

 Evelyn in his " Sylva." " I do only wish — upon the 

 prospect and meditation of the universal benefit — that 

 every person whatever, worth ten pounds per annum, 

 within Her Majesty's dominions, were by some 

 indispensable statute, obliged to plant his hedge-rows 

 with the best and most useful kinds of fruit trees .... 

 Undoubtedly, if this course were taken effectually, a 

 very considerable part both of the meat and drink, 

 which is spent to our prejudice, might be saved by 

 the country people, even out of the hedges and 

 mounds, which would afford them not only the 

 pleasure and profit of their delicious fruit, but such 

 abundance of cyder and perry, as should suffice them 

 to drink of one of the most wholesome and excellent 

 beverages in the world." 



INSECTS AND THE COLOURS 

 FLOWERS. 



OF 



I AM sure all your readers must have been inter- 

 ested in the discussion in your pages on the 

 development of the colours of flowers through insect 

 selection, and possibly those who have been accus- 

 tomed to look upon the brilliant colouring of flowers 

 only as related to insects, may have been astonished 

 to see how much still needs to be proved before the 



