68 THE APPLE-TREE. 



mythologies and in classic song, all clearly indicate that the 

 culture of the apple was coeval with the dawnings of civilization 

 and the progress of mankind. 



The Romans had twenty-two varieties of apples called by 

 noble names. Pliny mentions 29 sorts cultivated in Italy about 

 the time of the Christian Era. He says ''our best apples will 

 immortalize their first grafters, such as took their names from 

 Manlius, Cestius, Claudius, &c."^ Alas! for apple glory. Where 

 now are these boasted sorts ? Their very names are forgotten, or 

 found only in the chronicles of the past, overlapped by the dust 

 of centuries. 



Nature through her wide domain works with an even 

 hand, and as it is with the race of man so is it more or less with 

 all organic structure. Where now are the lineal descendents of 

 the Arundels, the Trevanions, the Godolphins — are they not all 

 gone? 



And of the illustrious Milton, Shakespeare, and Dryden 

 stocks no scion remains. 



" Are God and nature then at strife, 



That nature lends such evil dreams P 



So careful of the type she seems, 



So careless of the single life ; 



' So careful of the type ' ? but no. 



From scarped cliff and quarried stone 



She cries, " a thousand types are gone." 



And not to speak of old Rome, the apples which ruled 

 the markets of mediaeval England are no longer remembered by 

 name, and are extinct even in the chronicles. Yet orchards are 

 mentioned in the charter of King John, in whose time Worcester 

 was famous for apples. So, too, in earlier times, was ancient 

 Glastonbury, where Arthur was buried in the Vale of Avalon. 



The oldest variety, so far as records go, is the Pearmain, 

 though some have assigned the place of honour, in age as in 

 excellence, to the Golden Pippin, and it appears that the Costard 

 apple (which gave a name to the Coster-Monger) was extensively 

 grown in the reign of Edward the 1st. 



During the wars of the Roses orchards fell into decay, but 

 revived again in the time of Henry the VIII, when several 

 valuable kinds were introduced from Flanders, that ancient and 

 historic home of gardiners, merchants, and manufacturers, and 



