r 



I. 



4 



k 



? 



17 



Is*. 



►^ 



147 



gives 



for taste." In 17 19 Tournefort' makes like reference to the Paris . 

 Garden, and gives as synonyms the Mains noii florida dicta of J. 

 Bauhin, and the common name Pomme figne. In 1768 Duha- 

 meP describes the same variety, and in his second edition 

 a figure of the fruit In 1834 there was exhibited at the Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society's exhibitioil,^ from Shrewsbury, 

 Massachusetts, *'A curious apple produced without blossoms, 

 and having neither core nor seed/' October 13, 1888, some 

 " No Blow '' apples were brought to the society by Mr. L. C. 

 Durkie, of Northfields Farms, and these were identical in shape, 

 but a Httle redder in color, than Duhamers figure. I secured 



4 L 



good colored drawi,ngs and dissections, and found them double- 

 cored and seedless. The taste acid, crisp, sprightly, reminding 

 of the Porter apple. December 15, 1888, O. B. Hadwin, of 

 Worcester, informed me that the Shrewsbury seedless apple Avas 

 well-known to him, and was the same variety as the '^No Blow." 

 In 1778 Mawe^ describes the Fig apple, and accounts for the 

 name by the trees producing fruit without any visible flowers, 

 like the Fig, but he adds that the tree does produce flowers 

 that are visible, but almost apetalous. The Pomme figne is 

 described, with Bauhin's and Tournefort's names as synonyms by 

 Poiret^ in 1804, and under the names Poni77te figure sa?is pepin 

 and Pomme d'Adani by Noisette^ in 1829, who describes it as 

 yellow striped with pale red, with firm and acid flesh. This fruit 

 IS also referred to by Ray,^ in 1688, who but quotes from Bau- 

 hin's Pinax, and apparently by Joncquit, in 1659, under the name 



■ i 



Mains friictifera sine flore d' Robin. 



From this review it seems placed among the strong proba- 

 bilities that many of these seedless apples were one and the same 

 variety which has been continued through the years, and if so, 

 illustrates either that it occasionally produces seed which con- 

 tinues the variety, or else that the present trees have been con- 

 tinued from grafts for over two thousand years- 



ilnst. rei herb. 1719, 635. 



2 Duhamel du Monceau, arb. fruit, 1768, i. 31S ; 2d cd. i. pi. 28. 



3 Hist. Mass. Hort. Soc. p. 234. Mass. Hort. Soc. Rept. 1S34. 22. 



4 Mawe and Abercronibie, Gardener, under Pynis. 



5 Enc. method, hot. v. 562, 



6 Noisette, Man, du Jard. 1829, 437. 



7 Ray, Hist. 168S, ii. 1446. 



