158 CIDER APPLES. 



highly esteemed as a very early dessert fruit. It is used also for 

 cooking, and for cider. 



Description. — Fruit : conical, or roundish ovate, even and 

 regular in its outline. Skin : beautifully streaked with crimson, 

 and yellow on the side next the sun, and less so on the shaded 

 side, where it is more yellow. Eye : closed, with connivent 

 segments, set in a rather deep, round, and somewhat plaited basin ; 

 tube, funnel shaped ; stamens, median. Stalk : about an inch 

 long, slender, inserted in a deep cavity, which is tinged with green. 

 Flesh : yellowish, tender, juicy, sweet, and of good flavour. It is 

 tinged with red at the base of the eye, at the base of the stalk, and 

 round the carpels. Cells of the core, open ; cell-walls, ovate. 



The chemical analysis of the juice of the Sam's Crab (season 

 1878), by Mr. G. H. With, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., Trinity College, 

 Dublin, gave the following results : — 



Density of fresh juice ... ... 1*037 



Ditto after 24 hours' exposure to air ... i'o46 

 100 parts of juice by weight, yielded of 



Sugar ... ... ... ... 10-140 



Tannin, Mucilage, Salts, &c. ... ... 4'37o 



Water ... ... ... ... 85-490 



Sani's Crab is one of the most useful of all our useful apples. 

 It requires a warm soil and sunny situation to bring its fruit to 

 perfection. In unfavourable situations it could hardly be recognised 

 as the same apple. When well ripened it has a rich aroma, and a 

 juicy, sweet, and piquant flavour that is seldom equalled. It is a 

 prime favourite with all Herefordshire school children (no mean 

 judges of a good apple), and it is equally attractive to birds and 

 insects, who revel in its sweetness. There are undoubtedly two 

 varieties of this apple, or, as was quaintly expressed by a great 

 admirer of the fruit, " There are two sorts of Sam's Crab : a basket 

 full of one kind is eaten the same day, but the same basket full of 

 the other kind lasts three or four days." 



