APPLES. 1G9 



olive green, a good deal reticulated with fine network. Stalk, three- 

 quarters of an inch long, slender, causing the fruit to be pendant. 

 Specific gravity of the juice, 1076. 



Many trees of the Pawsan are found in the south-east or llyland district of 

 Herefordshire, which have apparently stood more than a century. Its pulp is 

 exceedingly rich and yellow, and in some seasons it affords cider of the finest 

 quality. Its name cannot be traced to any probable source. 



Peach. See Pomeroy. 



PEARMAIN (Old Pearmain; OU English Pearmain}. Fruit, below 

 medium size, two inches and a quarter wide, and two inches and five- 

 eighths high ; abrupt conical or cylindrical, bluntly angular, slightly 

 undulating at the crown ; sometimes it is only two inches and a quarter 

 high, and consequently the shape is roundish. Skin, entirely covered 

 with dark crimson, except where shaded, and there it is yellow, tinged 

 with red, and marked with broken streaks of pale crimson ; the surface 

 is strewed with large fawn-coloured russet dots, like freckles. Eye, 

 closed, with flat convergent segments, set in a wide, plaited basin. 

 Stamens, marginal ; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, very short, not over 

 a quarter of an inch, imbedded in a rather shallow cavity. Flesh, 

 yellowish, tender, juicy, sweet, and highly flavoured. Cells, roundish 

 or roundish obovate ; axile. 



A very excellent dessert apple ; in use till Christmas. 



This is the true Old Pearmain, for which I am indebted to the 

 indefatigable research of my esteemed friend, Dr. Bull, of Hereford. 

 The locality in which this is now grown is about Dymock, where some 

 old trees exist, and the trees from which the fruit was gathered that 

 enabled me to make this description were grafted thirty -five years ago 

 from scions taken from old trees on the Grainge estates, a noted apple 

 district on the borders of Herefordshire. 



The Pearmain is the oldest English apple on record. Its cultivation in Norfolk 

 can be traced back to the year 1200, Blomeh'eld, in his history of that county, 

 giving an instance of a tenure by petty serjeantry and the payment of two 

 hundred Pearmains and four hogsheads of cider of Pearmains into the Exchequer 

 at the Feast of St. Michael yearly. 



The term Pearmain, which is now applied to so many varieties of apples, 

 signifies the Great Pear Apple. In olden times it was variously written Pearemaine 

 or Peare-maine, being the Anglicised equivalent of Pyrus Magnus, just as Charle- 

 magne is of Carolus Magnus, A Pearmain, therefore, ought to be a long or 

 pear-shaped apple. 



PEARSON'S PLATE. Fruit, small, two inches and a quarter 

 broad, and the same in height ; roundish ovate, or inclining to oblate, 

 generally higher on one side of the apex than the other, regularly and 

 handsomely formed. Skin, smooth, greenish yellow in the shade, but 

 washed and mottled with red, and streaked with deeper red, on the side 

 next the sun ; the whole surface much covered with very fine, thin, 

 and smooth pale brown russet, and dotted with dark dots. Eye, open, 

 with short segments, set in a shallow and plaited basin. Stamens, 

 median ; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, half an inch long, inserted in a 



