286 [ THE APPLE TREE 



pale yellow, often floury and sometimes rather spongy, 

 but always half-melting, sweet, with a delicate acidity 

 and fine aroma. The tree is very vigorous and in 

 sheltered situations grows to a large size. The bulk of 

 our apple orchards consists now of this variety. The fruit 

 keeps well and ships well. Maturation commences towards 

 the close of July and is prolonged well into September. 



3. THE LARGE WHITE APPLE (N[ tuffieh abjad 

 ohxon^) The fruit is large or very large, cream-coloured 

 or light yellow at maturity, often slightly flushed, very 

 light pink towards the sun. The shape is nearly round 

 but often slightly oval, broader towards the base, and 

 generally with a long and slender, but strong stalk. 

 The flesh is floury, but juicy, sweet and well perfumed. 

 The tree is very vigorous and productive. This apple 

 is much grown in our orchards, being next to the 

 preceding in importance. The fruit keeps fairly well; 

 the first fruits ripen in July, and the crop is harvested 

 entirely by the end of August. 



4. THE SMALL WHITE APPLE (W[=pumicell: the 

 term is often applied indistinctly to small-sized 

 apples and to winter or late-ripening sorts). The tree 

 is vigorous, but never attains a large size, and has 

 a marked tendency to throw up suckers. It is very 

 productive, the fruit being borne in clusters of two 

 to five. The fruit is small or middling, shaped like a 

 truncated cone, the rind is greenish or yellowish white. 

 The flesh is white, rather firm, but tender and juicy, 

 fragrant and very sweet, with a pleasant acidity. The 

 fruit ripens late in August or in September, and keeps 

 well to October. The tree must have a cool situation, 

 being little productive in full sunshine. It is a good 

 fruit but it is commercially inferior to the preceding 

 two sorts. 



5. RED ASTRAKAN, TRANSPARENTE ROUGE DE 

 RUSSIE. (W=*tuffieh ahmar). The original tree was 

 imported from Italy with the name of Astrakan rosso. 



