THE APPLE. 



mains, John Apples, Winter Russetings, and Leather Coats. 

 Gerard enumerates and figures " The Pome Water, the 

 Baker's Ditch, the King of Apples, the Quining or Queene 

 of Apples, the Sommer Pearemaine," and " the Winter 

 Pearemaine ;" and he says, " I have seene in the pastures 

 and hedgerowes. about the grounds of a worshippfuU gentle- 

 man, dwelling two miles from Hereford, called ill. Roger 

 Bednome, so many trees of all sortes, tliat the seruants drinke 

 for the most part no other drinke, but that which is made 

 of Apples. The quantitie is such, that by the report of the 

 gentleman himselfe, the parson hath for tithe many hogs- 

 heads of Syder." 



But it is to Parkinson we are indebted for the best 

 account of the early English varieties, of which he enume- 

 rates no less than fifty-nine, with " tweenty sorts of sweet- 

 ings and none good ;" and from him may be dated the dawn 

 of British Pomology. Hartlib mentions one who had 200 

 sorts of apples, and was of opinion that 500 sorts existed. 

 Rea, in his Pomona, enumerates twenty varieties, sixteen of 

 which are not mentioned by Parkinson ; and Meager gives 

 a list of eighty- three, which were cultivated in the Bromp- 

 ton Park, and some other nurseries round London, of which 

 fifty- one are not found in the hsts of either Parkinson or 

 Rea. Worlidge mentions ninety-two, which are chiefly 

 cider fruits. The seventy-seven varieties of Ray are much 

 the same as those enumerated by Worhdge. Daring the 

 last century, the writings of Switzer, Langiey, Hitt, Miller, 

 and Abercrombie, added little to what have aheady been 

 noticed, except that Switzer first mentions the Nonpareil; 

 and it is to Forsyth that we are indebted for a more ex- 

 tended knowledge of the different varieties, then known 

 to exist in this country. With Thomas Andrew Knight, 

 Esq., the first President of the London Horticultural 

 Society, a new era in the history of pomology commenced, 

 and during his lifetime there was more attention devoted 

 to this study, than had been since the days of Evelyn and 

 De Quintinye. It was with this zealous horticulturist, 

 that a practical application of the discovery of the sexes of 

 plants, was first systematically carried into operation ; and 

 the success which attended his labors in hybridization, is 

 evinced by the many valuable varieties of fruits which he 



