APPLES. 21 



BESS POOL. Fruit, above medium size, two inches and three- 

 quarters wide, and nearly three inches high ; roundish ovate, inclining 

 to conical, and handsomely shaped. Skin, yellow with a few markings 

 of red on the shaded side ; but where exposed to the sun it is almost 

 entirely washed and striped with fine clear red. Eye, email and par- 

 tially open, with erect convergent segments, set in a rather deep and 

 plaited basin, which is surrounded with five prominent knobbed plaits. 

 Stamens, median ; tube, short, funnel-shaped. Stalk, short and thick, 

 inserted in a rather shallow cavity, with generally a fleshy protuberance 

 on one side of it, and a knobbed" end, and surrounded with yellowish 

 brown russet, which extends over a considerable portion of the base. 

 Flesh, white, sometimes stained with red under the skin, tender, and 

 juicy, with a sweet vinous flavour. Cells, ovate ; axile, open, or abaxile. 



A very handsome and excellent apple, either for culinary or dessert 

 use. It is in season from November to March. 



The tree is hardy, a vigorous grower, but an indifferent bearer till it 

 is old. The flowers are very late in expanding, and are, therefore, not 

 liable to be injured by spring frosts ; but they are so crowded in 

 clusters, and the stalks are so slender and weak, they suffer much if 

 attacked by honeydew or aphis. 



This is a Nottinghamshire apple. In a communication I received from the late 

 Mr. J. R. Pearson, of Chilwell, he says, " My father became so in love with the 

 Bess Pool that he planted it largely. He used to tell how a girl named Bess Pool 

 found in a wood the seedling tree full of ripe fruit ; how, showing the apples in her 

 father's house he kept a village inn the tree became known, and my grandfather 

 procured grafts. lie would then show the teven first-planted trees o*f the kind in 

 one of our nurseries ; tell how Loudon had been to see them and given an account 

 of them in his Gardeners' Magazine ; make his visitors try to clasp round their 

 boles, and measure the space covered by their branches. He would then boast how, 

 one season, when apples were very scarce, the fruit of these trees was sold at 7s. 6d. 

 a peck, and made 70, or an average of 10 a tree. 



"So far from thinking the Bess Pool a regular bearer, I believe it to be a very 

 uncertain one, and anything but a profitable one to plant." 



BEST BACHE (Backers Kernel}. Fruit, medium sized ; oblong, 

 with obtuse angles on the sides, which extend to the apex. Skin, 

 yellow, shaded with pale red, and streaked with darker red, interspersed 

 with a few black specks. Eye, small, segments short and flat. Stalk, 

 short and stout. 



Specific gravity of the juice, 1073. 



A cider apple, grown in the south-east part of Herefordshire. 



BETSEY. Fruit, small, about two inches wide, and an inch and 

 three-quarters high ; roundish, inclining to conical and flattened. 

 Skin, dark green at first, and considerably covered with ashy grey 

 russet, but changing to pale yellow, and with a brownish tinge on the 

 side next the sun. Eye, open, with short reflexed segments, and set in 

 a very shallow depression. Stamens, median ; tube, funnel-shaped. 

 Stalk, short, about a quarter of an inch long, with a fleshy protuberance 

 on one side of it, and inserted in a shallow and narrow cavity. Flesh, 



