38 



described in Pliny's Natural History as a 

 fruit that hath a tender skin to be pared off; 

 and he mentions crabs and wildings as being 

 smaller; " and for their harsh sourness, they 

 have/' says he, " many a foul word and 

 shrewd curse given them." 



Apple-trees, from the earliest accounts, 

 seem to iiave required the fostering care of 

 man. Of all the fruit-trees in Italy, Pliny 

 says the apple is the tenderest, and least able 

 to bear heat or cold, particularly the early 

 kind that produces the sweet Jennitings. 

 For a long time the apple-tree was of the 

 highest value among fruit-trees with the 

 Romans: " there are many apple-trees/' says 

 Pliny, "in the villages near Rome that let for 

 the yearly sum of 2,000 sesterces/' which is 

 equal to l c 2. 10s. of our money; "and some 

 of them," says this author, "yield more profit 

 to the owner than a small farm, and which 

 brought about the invention of grafting. 

 There are apples that have ennobled the 

 countries from whence they came; and many 

 apples have immortalized their first founders 

 and inventors. Our best apples," continues 

 he, " will honour the first grafters for ever; 

 such as took their names from Matius, Ces- 

 tius, Manlius, and Claudius." Pliny parti- 

 cularizes the quince apples, that came from 



