IX. 



THE DOWNTON PIPPIN. 



The Downton Pippin sprang, like the Grange Apple, and 

 in the same year, from a seed of the preceding variety, and 

 from the pollen of the Golden Pippin. It a good deal re- 

 sembles its male parent in form and colour, and still more 

 nearly in flavour, and it is, I believe, entitled to the first 

 place amongst new varieties, as a fruit for the dessert. The 

 trees grow very freely, and are most exuberantly productive 

 of fruit, the grafts inserted in one season usually affording 

 blossoms in the succeeding spring. Linnaeus was of opinion 

 that the character of the male parent generally predominated 

 in the exterior of the offspring, and both the Grange Apple 

 and Downton Pippin might be adduced as examples in 

 support of his hypothesis ; which nevertheless I have had, in 

 many other cases, ample reasons to reject. The Downton 

 Pippin ripens in the end of October ; but it may be preserved 

 till March. The specific gravity of its juice, when expressed 

 from a well ripened sample of the fruit, is about 1080. The 

 original tree, with that of the Grange Apple, is growing at 

 Wormsley Grange, in Herefordshire. 



There is a degree of freshness in the bark, both of this 

 and of the Grange Apple, that is not generally seen in older 

 varieties ; and the leaves are more green than is common 

 when the fruit is ripe. The drawings are, however, perfectly 

 accurate, and are portraits of branches selected by myself 

 from young trees in my nursery. 



