320 HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. 



crab-apples, the fruit is made into vinegar, and kept 

 separately for medicinal or domestic use. 



The wild crab is very various in the size, colour, 

 and flavour of its fruit, varying in the latter point 

 from an austerity that, on biting an apple, would 

 make one wince again, to that of an agreeable acid 

 flavour, almost equal to some of our domestic apples. 



Taking into consideration this disposition to run 

 into varieties, even in a wild state, we shall not be 

 surprised that, in cultivation, the sorts of apples 

 should be endless, so much so, indeed, that Don, in 

 his " General System of Gardening and Botany," has 

 copied a list * in which are described no less than one 

 thousand four hundred sorts, and in a nurseryman's 

 list now before us, "Descriptive Catalogue of Fruit 

 Trees, by John Scott, of Merriott Nurseries, Crew- 

 kerne, Somerset," are described as many as one 

 hundred and sixty-six sorts, which he is prepared 

 to supply to purchasers. 



As an evidence of the facility with which new sorts 

 can be obtained, there is scarcely a country town or 

 place in orchard districts but has given its name to 

 some apple. Thus we have Canadian Pippin, New- 

 town Pippin, Carlisle and Keswick Codlin, Hawth- 

 enden, &c. ; and the names of fruit-growers and 

 others attached to apples is almost endless ; as thus : 

 Ashmead's Kernel, Nelson's Codlin, Lucombe's 

 Seedling, Lord Nelson, Lord Raglan, &c, &c. 



The subject of " sorts," as applied to fruit, is one 

 of great interest, as the facility with which these can 



* This list was made out by the Horticultural Society in 1832, 

 and may now be considerably augmented. 



