40 FAMILIAR TREES 



of Apples was infinite." John Parkinson, in his 

 " Paradisus Terrestris" (1G29), enumerates fifty-seven 

 sorts ; and though Ray in 1688 only mentions seventy- 

 eight as grown round London, his friend and contem- 

 porary, Samuel Hartlib, alludes to the existence of 

 two hundred kinds. At the present day there are 

 stated to be five thousand varieties in cultivation. 



The sapwood is a dull white, but the heart a dark 

 brown, heavy, very hard and taking a high polish. 

 Crab- tree cudgels are proverbial for their hardness 

 and the wood is also used for mallets and turnery ; 

 but is brittle and apt to warp. 



In many an old manor-house, where a generation 

 ago there was no lawn, as at present, or at most a 

 green bowling-alley, shut in by a Yew hedge, the 

 orchard of cider-apples, in whose long grass grew 

 Winter-aconite, Snowdrops, and Daffodils, was planted 

 close to the parlour windows, and the trees may 

 yet remain to give an old-world charm to the spot. 



