6 



only premonitory of the departure of power which 

 will, after a transient increase of strength, occur to 

 its removed member. Every subsequent scion, how- 

 ever frequently, and whilst in apparent health, re- 

 moved to another youthful stock, will be found to 

 have a period of renewed vigour and productiveness 

 of shorter duration than its predecessor. The Golden 

 Pippin is occasionally quoted as a contrary proof : 

 but this example has no such weight ; for, supposing 

 that this fruit yet exists, still it has not passed the 

 age beyond which the period of unproductiveness and 

 death in the apple-tree may be delayed by grafting ; 

 for we have no mention of this fruit that at all justi- 

 fies the conclusion, that the Golden Pippin existed 

 much more than three centuries ago. A Pearmain 

 apple is mentioned in records as old as King John 

 (a.d. 1205); but the Pippin is not noticed by any 

 authority earlier than the reign of Henry YIII. 

 (1509). Lambard mentions than Tenham, in Kent, 

 famous for its cherry-gardens and apple-orchards, was 

 the place where Richard Harris, or Haines, that 

 king's fruiterer, first planted cherries, Pippins, and 

 the Golden Renate. 



Supposing, then, that the Golden Pippin of our 

 days is a genuine portion of the Tenham trees, handed 

 down to us by successive graftings, yet still, though 

 in extreme decrepitude, it has not exceeded the age 

 assigned by naturalists as that beyond which the life 



