45 



been scarce even in the time of Charles the 

 First; for in the valuation of the fruit-trees 

 at the royal gardens of his queen at Wim- 

 bleton, there is only one Pippin-tree men- 

 tioned. 



For some years past, it has been stated 

 by several ingenious writers, that many of 

 our best varieties of apples could no longer 

 be cultivated with success; that by length 

 of time they have become degenerated and 

 worn out. Mr. Knight, the president of the 

 Horticultural Society, seems to have been 

 the first that gave birth to this idea. He says, 

 in his Pomona Herefordiensis, that those 

 apples which have been long cultivated are 

 on the decay. The Redstreak and the 

 Golden Pippin, can no longer be propa- 

 gated with advantage. The fruit, like* the 

 parent tree, is affected by the debilitated 

 old age of the variety. Again he says, in 

 his Treatise on the Culture of the Apple 

 and Pear, page 6, " the Moil, and its suc- 

 cessful rival the Redstreak, with the Must 

 and Golden Pippin, are in the last stage of 

 decay, and the Stire and Foxwhelp are 

 hastening rapidly after them/' " It is much 

 to be regretted/' says Speedily, " that this 

 apparently visionary notion of the extinction 

 of certain kinds of apples should have been 



