956 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
acid and harsh, that it cannot be eaten in an uncooked state, but makes a very pleasant 
preserve when boiled with sugar. The French commonly call the apples Cider Apples, 
and the juice known as “ verjuice ” has given rise to a proverb from its acidity, and is a 
favourite remedy in rural districts for sprains and bruises. In Ireland, the juice is often 
added to cider to give it roughness. 
Sun-Srecies I..—Pyrus mitis. 
Pirate CCCCXC. 
P. Malus, var. 3, mitis, Wallr. Sched. Crit. p. 215. 
P. Malus, D.C. Gr. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 571. 
Malus communis, “ Poir.” Boreau, Fl. du Centre de la Fr. ed. iii. p. 236. 
P. Malus, var. 3, tomentosa, Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 117. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germs 
et Helv. ed. ii. p. 261. 
P. Malus, var. (3, sativa, Leighton, Fl. Shrop. p. 527. 
Young branches, underside of leaves, pedicels, and calyx-tube, 
woolly, pubescent. Fruit sub-erect, longer than the peduncle. 
In hedges and thickets. Not uncommon in England and the 
South of Scotland, but most probably generally, if not always, 
derived from the seeds of the cultivated apple. 
England, [Scotland], Ireland? Tree. Summer. 
This plant is, no doubt, the original stock of all the cultivated 
apples which have shortly-stalked fruit. The leaves are generally 
larger, more oval, and with rather shorter petioles and less distinetly 
cuspidate than those of the crab-apple; the red and white in the 
flower is more in stripes, and the whole plant more woolly. It 
begins to flower a little earlier than P. acerba, and appears to 
perfect its fruit less readily, as I have frequently seen the crab 
fruiting freely beside P. mitis on which no fruit was set. 
The name tomentosa cannot be applied to this plant, as there is 
already a P. tomentosa of De Candolle. 
Wild Apple. 
French, Pyrus Pommier. German, Gemenier Apfelbaum. 
The source from whence we derived our first cultivated Apples is somewhat 
obscure ; but it is certain that no fruit is brought to so great a state of perfection at 
the present time in Great Britain, and with so little trouble, the climate and soil seeming 
to be specially adapted to it. The Apple is mentioned by the most ancient Greek 
writers, and in Pliny’s time it was cultivated in abundance in the villages around 
Rome, and many of the sorts took their names from the first grafters. In all proba- 
bility, the cultivated Apple was first introduced into our island by the Romans,— 
possibly by some of the monks who established themselves here, and founded religious 
houses, the gardens of which were well supplied with fruit-trees. The Apple known 
as the pippin, from being orignally raised from pips or seeds instead of by grafting, 
was brought by Leonard Maschal, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Henry VIIL, 
from France ; and numerous other varieties were imported shortly after. In Shake- 
speare’s time Apples of this sort seem to have been much esteemed, if we may judge 
