26 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



"Appleton," the family surname, began just after it. 

 In 1066, among the followers of William there was a 

 lady of the name of Mabilia. She fixed her residence 

 in Kent, at one of the many places where apples, it 

 would seem, were already plentiful, and, commending 

 herself to the people by her virtues, became known as 

 Mabilia d'Appletone, or Mabilia of the apple-orchards. 

 Her descendants, the Appletons of Kent and the 

 adjoining counties, like the Traffords of Lancashire, 

 still, after eight hundred years, cling faithfully to the 

 ancestral soil. The heraldic crest became an apple- 

 bough, with leaves and fruit, and continues such to the 

 present day. 



This inestimable fruit-tree has been carried, during the 

 last three centuries, to every part of the world where it can 

 thrive. Hot countries are unfavourable to it : the fruit 

 is appreciated nevertheless, as in Alexandria, and even 

 Cairo, where imported European apples never wait long 

 for a purchaser. It does admirably well in New Zealand, 

 and in Australia, whence apples are now finding their 

 way to the English market, arriving, very opportunely, 

 in the spring. In the park -like prairies of Chili it has 

 become quite plentiful;* it has reached even to Patagonia; 

 and how grand has been its success in North America 

 needs no telling. What may be the dimensions of the 

 largest apple-tree in the Old World we do not know, but 



* In Chili there is made a good deal of cider, in Spanish called 

 chicha, and corresponding, in its use and measure of popularity, to 

 the vin ordinaire of the French. 



