18 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



in this case referring to the various fruits forming the dessert 

 that, as with ourselves, marked the end of the repast. We 

 see very much the same application of a general term to a 

 particular and limited use in the French word, pomme, for 

 the apple, the Romans applying the term pomum to any 

 fruit growing on a tree, and by no means confining the 

 word to the apple exclusively. Our English word is 

 derived from the Anglo-Saxon apl, the name under which 

 the fruit was even in the long by-gone days appreciated 

 and cultivated. Gerarde, in his work on plants, published 

 in the year 1596, speaks of a valuable ointment that had 

 been lately introduced, which was called pomatum. It 

 was used to beautify the skin, and was compounded of 

 the pulp of apples, lard, and rose-water. From the 

 fruit of the crab verjuice is made, which, when fermented 

 and sweetened, makes a not unpleasant drink ; it is also 

 in its natural state sometimes added to cider to give it 

 greater roughness and tartness. The fruit, though so 

 intensely sour to the taste, is, when ripe, very attractive to 

 the eye, the rosy clusters being very tempting-looking, 

 and not at all indicative of the disappointment in store 

 for the novice, who, presuming on their attractiveness, 

 desires a yet closer acquaintance. The fruit has, in fact, 

 contributed a word to the language, crabbedness being a 

 very sufficiently expressive wx>rd when applied to a dis- 

 position the reverse of sweet. The wood of the apple 

 is very hard a crab-tree cudgel is proverbially a tough 

 one and is very frequently used in turnery; and the 

 trunk of the wild apple is preferred for this purpose to 

 that of the cultivated trees. The great use, however, of 

 the cultivated varieties, beyond the employment of the 

 fruit for cooking and eating purposes, is in the making of 



