General Notices. 231 



annisque CXX. trans Oceanum in Britanniam usque pervenere." Seeing, 

 then, that they introduced the cherry and the vine, it is quite probable that 

 they introduced the apple also ; for, according to the same author, apples 

 were held in such estimation among them as not only to procure renown to 

 those who propagated them, but also to those parts of the country whence 

 they were brought, (lib. xv. cap. 14.) He also mentions that, in the sub- 

 urbs of Rome, the fruit produced from the apple trees realized more to the 

 owners than was formerly obtained from farming. 



If, then, the apple was so valued by the Romans, we have every reason 

 to believe that this warlike people, who carried their luxuries wherever 

 they extended their conquests, were just as likely to introduce it to our 

 island as they did the cherry and the vine. Indeed, we are informed by 

 Tacitus, that all fruit trees succeeded in Britain except the vine, the olive, 

 and such others as require a warmer climate. But even supposing the 

 apple was not introduced by the Romans, there were other means by which 

 it could have existed in this country prior to the Norman conquest. The 

 monks, who ever ministered to their temporal as well as to their spiritual 

 necessities, and some of them, perhaps, more to the one than the other, 

 were in constant communication with the Continent, and particularly witli 

 Italy ; and I think it quite probable that they too were the means of intro- 

 ducing it. But, be that as it may, I cannot reconcile myself to believe that 

 the apple did not exist in Britain before the time above mentioned. 



The subject to which I wish more particularly to direct attention now is, 

 the nomenclature of some of our oldest apples, whose names either con- 

 vey no meaning at all, or have become so distorted as to lose all trace of 

 the original form. 



Juneatings. — These, of which the White Juneating is the type, are 

 among our oldest varieties. The forms in which we find the name written 

 by the old authors are Jennetting, Ginetting, Genneting, Juneting Junit- 

 ing, and Jeniting ; and it is not till towards the close of the last century 

 that Abercrombie, who is the first author in whose writings we so find it, 

 calls it Juneating. I have no doubt that this last form was adopted in 

 order to convey what appeared to him to be the proper signification of the 

 word June-eating, i. e. ripe in June. Dr. Johnson writes it Gineting, and 

 says it is a corruption of Janeton (Fr.,) signifying Jane or Janet, having 

 been so called from a person of that name. But notwithstanding this opin- 

 ion of the great lexicographer, I am induced to think differently. All 

 authors who have mentioned this variety — and some of them lived at a 

 period when it is said the summers were hotter and more precocious than 

 they are now — agree in fixing the period of its maturity at the end of July ; 

 so that I conceive Juneating has as little reference to the origin of the name 

 as Julyflower has to Gilliflower, or Sparrowgrass to Asparagus. 



In early times, it was customary to make the festivals of the Church 

 periods at which occurrences were to take place, or from which events 

 were dated ; and, even at this day, we find the country people, appropriating 

 some operation for St. Thomas's day, and some other operation for St. 

 Andrew's, Michaelmas, Allhallow-tide, or other holidays. So also it was 



