JOUENAL OP HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 18, 1866. 



most of those remaining are of two kinds, one appearing to be 

 a Pearmain of some sort, the other a large kitchen Apple that 

 would pass muster very well at the present day in Covent 

 Garden. This Apple, to which I more particularly call atten- 

 tion, is called to the present day the Flanders Pippin ; and as 

 tradition is tolerably trustworthy in matters of local import, 

 the name may be regarded as established. The question then 

 arises, Were these venerable trees imported from the country 

 whose name they bear? History, as I have already noticed, 

 says that a gardener to Henry VIII. imported trees from 



Flanders and planted them at Teynham in this county, and 

 very likely one or more of the varieties might bear the name 

 of the country they came from, hence it is not unlikely the trees 

 at Linton might be planted at a period very nearly as remote 

 as that alluded to. 



These Apple trees are the oldest-looking and the largest I 

 know anywhere. One of them I find measures in direct per- 

 pendicular height 46 feet, and the girth of its bole is 75 inches. 

 The others are much about the same in height ; and in circum- 

 ference of bole they average 07 inches, the largest being 



! ii?§^ 



«*S^ 



ATFLE TREE IN " THE OLD ORCHARD AT LINTON PARK. 



81 and the smallest 47 inches, passing the string round the 

 tree at its smallest part below the first branches ; and as the 

 ends of all the top branches are dead, and have been decaying 

 for some years, it is not too much to say that the trees may 

 have been 6 feet higher. Generally the foliage is healthy. No 

 suckers have ever, to my knowledge, been seen, and the ques- 

 tion sometimes arises, Have they ever been grafted ? If they 

 have not, is it the cause of their greater longevity ? The soil 

 which these trees occupy is a sound, deep, mellow loam, neither 

 too stiff nor too light ; yet at no great distance are other orchards 

 of recent date, soil and situation much the same, where the 

 trees show indications of dying off, though probably only one- 

 fourth the age of these patriarchs. How is this to be accounted 

 for? King of the Pippins and Winter Quoinings show symp- 



toms of old age at thirty "or forty years or less, and the Haw- 

 thornden scarcely lives more than half that time. The Flanders 

 Pippin trees in " The Old Orchard " were long past their best 

 sixty years ago ; yet the fruit they now bear is better than 

 three-fourths of the Hawthorndens met with, and less spotted 

 and unsightly. The fruit is not unlike that variety, being of 

 a pale green, with very little colour, and not so shining in the 

 skin as Dumelow's Seedling and some other kinds. It usually 

 keeps well till Christmas. — J. Eobson. 



[We have paid some attention to the early history of the 

 Apple in England, and some day may arrange and publish our 

 notes. It is very evident that in the days Mr. Eobson has named 

 there was a distinction between Apples and Pippins. In the 

 "Privy Purse Expenses" of Princess (afterwards Queen), 



