XIV. 



THE FOXLEY APPLE. 



This singular little apple sprang from a seed of the yellow 

 Siberian Crab, and the Pollen of the Orange Pippin* ; and 

 it affords a remarkable combination of the apparently dis- 

 cordant qualities of its male and female parents. Its wood, 

 its leaves, and blossoms, are those of a Crabtree, and are, to 

 an extraordinary extent, patient of cold and unfavourable 

 weather ; whilst the fruit rivals the Golden Pippin in 

 sweetness. 



The native Crab of our woods was first transmuted into a 

 rich apple by culture through successive generations ; and 

 during its progressive changes it became habituated to cul- 

 ture, and, like every other plant under similar circumstances, 

 grew more and more dependent upon the care of man, as 

 it became better adapted to his service. A rich apple, 

 therefore, when thus generated, requires a continuation of 

 that culture from which it first derived its existence, and is 

 rarely, or never, well calculated for poor soils, or unfavour- 

 able situations. But when a variety, as in the present in- 

 stance, is the offspring of parents of totally dissimilar cha- 

 %'icters ; when one parent has received all the improvements 



* See Plate the 8tli. 



