158 THE FRUIT MANUAL. 



wide, and an inch and a half high ; round, regularly formed, and de- 

 pressed. Skin, green, even after having been kept, but eventually 

 it becomes yellow, thinly covered with patches of russet, particularly 

 on the side exposed to the sun. Eye, closed, with broad erect seg- 

 ments, which are spreading at the tips, set in a shallow slightly plaited 

 basin. Stamens, median; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, short, im- 

 bedded in a deep narrow cavity, sometimes it is half an inch long. 

 Flesh, greenish, firm, crisp, juicy, and of good flavour. Cells, obovate ; 

 axile, closed. 



A neat little dessert apple, resembling a Golden Pippin ; it is in 

 use from November till February. 



NONPAREIL (Old Nonpareil; English Nonpareil; Hunt's Non- 

 pareil ; Lovedon's Pippin ; Reinette Nonpareil ; Nonpareil d'Angle- 

 terre ; Due d'Arsel ; Grime Reinette). Fruit, below medium size, 

 two inches and a half wide, and two inches high ; roundish, broad at 

 the base and narrowing towards the apex. Skin, yellowish green, 

 covered with large patches of thin grey russet, and dotted with small 

 brown russety dots, with occasionally a tinge of dull red on the side 

 next the sun. Eye, rather prominent, very slightly if at all depressed, 

 half open, with broad segments, which are reflexed at the tips. Stamens, 

 marginal ; tube, conical or funnel-shaped. Stalk, an inch long, set in 

 a round and pretty deep cavity, which is lined with russet. Flesh, 

 greenish, delicate, crisp, rich, and juicy, abounding in a particularly 

 rich, vinous, and aromatic flavour. Cells, ovate or roundish ; axile. 



One of the most highly esteemed and popular of all our dessert apples ; 

 it is in use from January to May. The tree is a free grower, and 

 healthy, scarcely attaining the middle size, and an excellent bearer. 

 It prefers a light and warm soil, succeeds well on the paradise stock, 

 and is well adapted for growing in pots, when grafted on the pomme 

 paradis of the French. Bradley in one of his tracts records an 

 instance of its being so cultivated. " Mr. Fairchild (of Hoxton) has 

 now (February) one of the Nonpareile apples upon a small tree, in a 

 pot, which seems capable of holding good till the blossoms of this year 

 have ripened their fruit." In the northern counties and in Scotland 

 it does not succeed as a standard, and even when grown against a 

 wall, there is a marked contrast in the flavour when compared with 

 the standard grown fruit of the south. 



It is generally allowed that the Nonpareil is originally from France. Switzer 

 says, "It is no stranger in England; though it might have its origin from France, 

 yet there are trees of them about the Ashtons in Oxfordshire, of about a hundred 

 years old, which (as they have it by tradition) was first brought out of France and 

 planted by a Jesuit in Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth's time." It is strange, 

 however, that an apple of such excellence, and held in such estimation as the 

 Nonpareil has always been, should have received so little notice from almost all 

 the early continental pomologists, It is not mentioned in the long list of the 

 Jardinier Franois of 1653, nor even by De la Quintinye, or the Jardinier 

 Solitaire. Schabol enumerates it, but it is not noticed by Bietonnerie. It is first 

 described by Duhamel, and subsequently by Knoop. In the Chartreux catalogue 



