24 THE FLORIST. 



Other cider Pippins.' In his Treatise on Cider he frequently notices 

 it as a cider Apple ; but never in any place that I can recollect of as 

 a dessert fruit. In the Pomona, he sa^-s, ' about London and the 

 southern tracts, the Pippin, and especially the Golden, is esteemed 

 for making- the most delicious cider, most M'holesome and most re- 

 storative.' Worlidge merely notices it as ' smaller than the Orange 

 Apple, else much like it in colour, taste, and long keeping.' Ray 

 seems the first ^vho fully appreciated it, for after minutely and cor- 

 rectly describing it, he says, ' Ad omnes culinse usus preestantissi- 

 mum habetur, et Pomaceo conficiendo egregium.' De Quintinye's 

 remarks are not at all comphmentary. He says it has altog:ether the 

 character of the Paradise or some other wild apple, it is extremely 

 yellow and round, little juice, which is pretty rich and without bad 

 flavour. But the Jardinier Solitaire, more impartial, or with better 

 judgment, says, 'son eau est tres sucree ; elle a le gout plus releve 

 que la Reynette ; c'est ce que lui donne le merite d'etre reconnue 

 pour une tres-excellente Pomme.' The opinion of Angran de Rue- 

 neuve is also worth recording: 'La Pomme d'Or est venue d'An- 

 gleterre ; on I'y apelle Goule-Pepin. J'estime quelle doit etre la 

 Reyne des Pommes, et que la Pveynette ne doit marcher qu'apres 

 elle; car elle est d'un plus fin relief que toutes les autres Pommes, 

 Switzer calls it ' the most antient, as well as most excellent Apple 

 that is.' But it is not my intention to record all that has been writ- 

 ten in praise of the Golden Pippin, for that of itself would occupy 

 too much space ; my object in making these extracts being simjily to 

 shew the gradual progress of its popularity. 



The late President of the London Horticultural Society, T. A. 

 Knight, Esq., considered that the Golden Pippin and all the old 

 varieties of English Apples were in the last stage of decay, and that 

 a few years Vi'ould witness their total extinction. This belief he 

 founded upon the degenerate state of these varieties in the Hereford- 

 shire orchards, and also upon his theory that no variety of Apple 

 will continue to exist more than 200 years. But that illustrious man 

 never fell into a greater error. It would be needless to enter into 

 any further discussion upon a subject concerning which so much 

 has already been said and written, as there is sufficient evidence to 

 confute that theory. The Pearmain, which is the oldest Enghsh 

 Apple on record, shews no symptoms of decay, neither does the Cats- 

 head, London Pippin, Winter Quoining, or any other variety; those 

 only having been allowed to disappear from our orchards which were 

 not worth perpetuating, and their places supplied by others infinitely 

 superior. 



It is now considerably upwards of half a century since this 

 doctrine was first promulgated, and though the old, exhausted, and 

 diseased trees of the Herefordshire orchards, of which Mr. Knight 

 spoke, together with their diseased progeny — now that they have 

 performed their part, and fulfilled the end of their existence — may 

 ere this have passed away, we have the Golden Pippin still, in all 

 the luxuriance of early youth, where it is found in a soil congenial 

 to its growth ; and exhibiting as little symptoms of decay as any 



