10 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



(i.e. having the circumference flattened into distinct faces) ; 

 ribbed, or having ridges with hollows between ; or oblique, 

 a term applied when the stalk and the eye, or blossom 

 end, are not exactly opposite ; and are again subdivided 

 according to colour, though Diel makes a primary class 

 of " striped " apples. The first American writer on these 

 fruits merely divides them, according to quality, into the 

 ranks of good, better, or best. Our own Loudon distin- 

 guishes them into Pearmaines, or somewhat pear-shaped 

 fruit ; Rennets, or Queen's ; Colvilles, or white-skinned 

 fruit ; E-usset, or brown fruit ; speckled fruits ; Pippins, 

 or such as are grown from seed ; and Burknots, which 

 can be readily propagated by cuttings ; while Hogg, the 

 latest, but by no means least, English authority on such 

 subjects, classes them into summer, autumn, and winter 

 apples ; dividing them again into sections according to 

 their form, and sub-sections founded upon their colour, a 

 classification quite sufficient for ordinary purposes, but 

 which does not satisfy the author himself, who remarks, 

 that "a system of classification for apples, founded on 

 characters at once permanent and well defined, is still a 

 great desideratum." Perhaps it may not long remain so, 

 for since expressing the above opinion, the same gentle- 

 man has announced, in a communication to a horticultural 

 periodical, that he is himself engaged in elaborating a 

 system which will reduce apples to a more natural ar- 

 rangement. 



Beauty of form and colour are qualities certainly not 

 to be despised in choosing apples for the dessert, where 

 the eye has to be catered for as well as the palate ; but ib 

 must by no means be expected that the fruit which adds 

 most to the decoration of the table shall always be the 

 one also best calculated to gratify gustativeness. These 

 virtues are, however, sometimes to be found combined, for 

 no pomological Lavater has arisen to lay down very cer- 

 tain laws for determining from outward appearance what 

 may be the inward characteristics of an apple ; but 

 M'Intosh, in his Book of the Gardenias given one gene- 

 ral rule which may be of some use in furnishing a cri- 

 terion, viz., that in yellowish-fleshed apples, or those with 



