44 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



capable of being turned to better account than merely to 

 be made into preserve or used in minute quantities to 

 add a flavour to apple pies, for Phillips has left on record 

 that when he wrote quinces grew so abundantly in some 

 parts of the Weald of Sussex as to be made into wine by 

 private families living in that neighbourhood, some even 

 manufacturing as much as 200 gallons 'in a season. This 

 wine, for the preparation of which he furnishes a recipe, 

 was, he adds, of agreeable flavour, improving greatly by 

 keeping, and of so much efficacy for asthmatic affections 

 that a gentleman residing at Horsham in Sussex assured 

 him that he had been completely cured of a long-standing 

 asthma solely by the use of it. Lord Eacon, too, has 

 left it as his testimony that "It is certain the use of 

 quinces is good to strengthen the stomach " (recommend- 

 ing, however, for this purpose, " quiddeny " of quince, pro- 

 bably a preserve), and in France at least it still maintains 

 the reputation of being an admirable tonic and stomachic 

 when taken medicinally, and made into a compote is 

 highly recommended as a diet to increase the digestive 

 power of convalescents. At Paris the fruit never reaches 

 perfect maturity, and though it ripens after gathering so 

 far as to acquire a rich golden hue and exhale its powerful 

 scent, remains so hard as to be quite unfit to be sent to 

 table, though a forlorn hope of a different future is not 

 yet abandoned by the sanguine French; for, says the 

 Son Jardinier of 1860, " we flatter ourselves yet, no doubt 

 in vain, that time and culture will yet render them eat- 

 able." In the South of France, on the borders of the 

 Garonne, quinces are much grown, to be made into a 

 marmalade called cotignac : indeed, it would seem that 

 that kind of confection must have been originally made 

 from this particular fruit, since the word marmalade has 

 its etymological root in the quince, the Portuguese name 

 for which is marmelo. The seeds are used in medicine, 

 though, says Noisette, not so much as they might be, for 

 the viscous mucilage in which they abound unites with 

 the softening qualities of gum arabic something of an 

 unctuous quality, which renders them peculiarly capable 

 of soothing irritation or inflammation of the most delicate 



