DURATION OF VARIETIES OF PLANTS. 



Besides, change of soil was one of the expedients specially resorted to with a view to 

 restore old varieties to health, and proved to be inefficient, and the fact, moreover, that 

 trees of the old varietes grow well when trained to a south wall, indicates, I think, most 

 clearly, that it is not the soil, but the vitality of the plant, which is at fault. When the 

 feeble powers of the plant are stimulated by the greater amount of heat afforded by a wall, 

 it is enabled to obtain from the soil sufficient material to enable it to grow with apparent 

 vigor, while in the same soil, as a standard, it is decrepid and diseased. 



Respecting the Golden Hervey, Dr. Lindley says it is in all good gardens. This may 

 be so; as Mr. Knight says, " the trees of the Golden Hervey still posses a considerable 

 share of health and vigor, and for culture in the garden only, it is not much impaired by 

 age." 



Of the Red-streak Dr. Lindley says " it is little known to him, and he has no evidence 

 about it." But if varieties of the apple do not deteriorate and wear out, how is it that 

 this, once the most famous cider apple known, is now all but extinct? Now it is of im- 

 portance to prove that varieties of plants which were propagated bj^ extension, and have 

 disappeared, or nearly so, formerly possessed such a combination of good properties as to 

 make it highly desirable to continue tliem for ever if possible. 



That the Red-streak was held in great estimation may be inferred from Phillips' poem 

 named "cider." 



Lei every tree in every garden own 



The Red-streak as supreme, whose pulpous fruit 



With gold irradiate, and vertnilhon sliines. 



Evelyn speaks of it as " the famous Red-streak;" and again, " theGennetMoyle was 

 preferred to the very Red-streak." " The Moj'le of sweetest honied taste." It is also 

 apparent by other remarks, that Evelyn considered the Red-streak had no rival in this 

 or any other country. With regard to health and productiveness, Evelyn observes, 

 " the Red-streak will at three years old grafting, give you fair hopes, and last a hundred 

 years, if from sundry men's experience of more than sixty 3'ears, we may divine." When 

 comparing the merits of the Golden Pippin with the Red-streak, he says of the former, 

 " it is in no wise so proper for a cider orchard, not half so soon bearing, nor so certainly, 

 nor in that quantity, nor in that fulness or security, for as it (the Red-streak) is no tall 

 tree, so it is less exposed to blasts and the like." Then respecting the quality of its 

 cider. In papers on cider and cider apples, published in Evelyn's Pomona, one writer says, 

 " among cider apples the Red-streak bears the bell." Another observes, "the cider of 

 the summer Red-streak is of a wonderful fragrant and aromatic quality." Evelj-n men- 

 tions that a Mr. Taylor of Herefordshire challenged a London vintner that he would 

 produce a cider which should excel his best Spanish or French wines — " the wager being 

 deposited, he brings in a good Red-streak to a private house, and all the vintner could call 

 to be judges pronounced against his wine." The vintner not being satisfied, two other 

 Avagers were entered into, but M'ith a like result. Now for evidence of the decline of this 

 once famous apple. In Martyn's edition of Miller it is said, " the Red-streak so much 

 celebrated by writers of the last century, appears almost to have survived its fame as a 

 cider apple." Mr. Knight in his Pomona Ilerefordionsis observes, "trees of the Red- 

 streak can now no longer be propagated, and the fruit, like the trees, is affected by the 

 debilitated old nge of the variety, and has in a very considerable degree, survived those 

 qualities to which was owing its former fame; the cider which has been made of it 



one, within the last thirty years having rarelj' proved good." Here then we hav 

 ctor}' proofs of a once famous apple; handsome, hard}'', productive, and afFo 



