HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2 75 



THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. 

 By H. G. Glasspoole {concluded). 



THE apple belongs to the natural order of the 

 Rosa ce32 J °f which the rose is the type or head 

 of the family. 



In Britain it is found in a wild state in the hedges 

 and on the margins of woods as far north as Moray- 

 shire, and as high as the agricultural zone. Wherever 

 it occurs in a wild state, the tree when young is 

 generally furnished with thorns, but these disappear as 

 it advances in age. The tree is of moderate size and 

 spreading, the branches more horizontal than those 

 of the pear. It is stated that the apple-trees intro Juced 

 into the Sandwich Islands have entirely changed 

 their habit of growth, and send up long vertical and 

 almost branchless shoots. 



Apple-wood is fine grained, hard, and compacted. 

 It is used for turning and for many other purposes 

 where hardness and variegation of colour are objects. 

 The tree is very tenacious of life ; many are known to 

 bear fruit at the age of two hundred years. One of 

 the most beautiful sights in the country during a fine 

 May is to see an orchard filled with apple-trees 

 arrayed with white and rosy blossoms, the delicate 

 fragrance of which is "less than roses and more than 

 violets." Mr. Ruskin, that great observer of nature's 

 varying beauties, remarks in one of his works, " that 

 of all the lovely things which grace the springtime 

 of this fair temperate zone, I am not sure but the 

 blossoming of the apple-tree is the fairest." 



The fruit of the apple contains sugar, malic acid, 

 mucilage, vegetable fibre and some aroma on which 

 their peculiar flavour depends ; the sugar is similar to 

 that found in the grape, and differs from the sugar of 

 commerce in not being crystallizable. Malic acid is 

 found in strawberries and other summer fruits ; it is 

 largely used in the art of dyeing cotton goods, &c. 

 When the fruit decays, the sugar is changed into a 

 bitter principle and the mucilage becomes mouldy 

 and offensive. Heat when in cooking tends to break 

 down the interstices of the cells of the pulp, diffuses 

 the acid and sugar more uniformly through the 

 mass, and renders the whole more easy of digestion. 

 The juice obtained from the wild crab is called verjuice 

 and is applied externally for sprains, cramps, &c. 

 The derivation of the word apple is curious. In Saxon, 

 appl, appul ; German, Apfel ; in Welsh, the aval ; 

 this word primarily signifies fruit in general, espe- 

 cially of a round form, as in Welsh not only apple but 

 plum and other fruits. Aval melynhir, a lemon ; aval 

 euraid, an orange. Dr. Prior remarks that in all Celtic 

 and Slavonic languages the word is (with the allow- 

 ance of dialect) the same, and it is the only one for 

 which we have a name that is not derived from the 

 Latin or French. Dr. Prior tells us the meaning of 

 the word is unknown. It is very possibly from Sans- 

 krit ami', "eat," and p/ntl, "fruit," but as ap is in 



Zend and Sanskrit " water," we might be tempted to 

 believe that it originally meant water-fruit or juice-fruit 

 with which the Latin pronoun from pofo, "drink," 

 exactly tallies. (See Prior's "Names of British 

 Plants.") 



In former days the apple occupied an important 

 place in the sports and superstitions of our forefathers, 

 some of which survive, even to the present day, among 

 the rural population of our villages. On St. James's 

 Day, before the Reformation, the Catholic priests were 

 accustomed to bless the apple-trees and commend the 

 fruit to the saint's protection in terms of a formal 

 prayer and benediction, still preserved in the Sarum 

 Manual. There is also an old saying that when it rains 

 on St. Swithin's Day it is the saint christening the 

 apples. In Devon and Herefordshire it was the 

 custom on Twelfth Night to salute the apple-trees 

 in the orchards, hoping thereby to obtain a good crop 

 next season. The ceremony consisted of taking a 

 wassail bowl of cider with toast in it, and pouring the 

 liquor about the roots of the trees, and hanging bits 

 of toast on the branches of the most barren, the rustics 

 dancing round in a circle singing : 



" Health to thee, good apple-tree, 

 Well to bear, pockets full, hats full, 

 Pecks full, bushels bags full." 



Another custom is apple howling, which takes 



place about Christmas. A troop of boys visit different 



orchards blowing a cow's horn, and encircling the 



trees, rap them with their sticks, as they repeat the 



following words : 



" Stand fast root, bare well top, 

 Pray God send us a good howling crop ; 

 Every twig, apple big, 

 Every bough, apples enow, 

 Hats full, caps full, 

 Good quarter sacks full." 



These ceremonies are supposed to be a relic of 

 heathenism, and were first instituted as a sacrifice to 

 Pomona. After the performance alluded to above, 

 the boys expected to be rewarded with halfpence from 

 the owners of the orchards. 



That this custom was practised in Sussex we learn 



from the Journal of the Rev. Giles Moore, who writes 



" 26 Dec. I gave the howling boys sixpence." No 



doubt the boys of the parish had been performing a 



relic of a heathen custom in the parson's orchard. 



Amongst the popular customs in Nottinghamshire, 



if a girl had two lovers, and wished to know which 



would be the most constant, she procured two brown 



apple-pips, and having named them after her lovers, 



stuck one on each cheek, the first that fell off was 



instantly discarded as being unfaithful. It is to this 



custom that Gray alludes in his spell : 



" See from this core two kernels now I take, 

 This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, 

 And Booby-Clod on t'other side is born. 

 But Booby-Clod soon falls upon the ground, 

 A certain token that his love's unsound ; 

 While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last, 

 Oh were his lips to mine but joined as fast." 



See Brand's " Popular Anticmities" and Thiselton 

 Dyer's " Customs " for further details on this subject. 



