THE APPLE. 



303 



Citron, which accords well with the description 

 given in the Sacred VolumCj and arrives at great 

 perfection in Syria, whereas the Apple does not. 

 The absurd legend, that the fruit of the forbid- 

 den tree was an Apple, has probably given rise 

 to the numerous superstitions respecting this 

 tree, which appear under various disguises in the 

 mythology of the Greeks* and Druids. The 

 latter also looked on it with great veneration, 

 from its being frequently clothed with Mistletoe. 

 In certain parts of this country superstitious 

 observances yet linger, such as drinking health 

 to the trees on Christmas and Epiphany eves, 

 saluting them by thro\^dng roasted crabs or toast 

 from the wassail-bowl to their roots, dancing 

 and singing round them, lighting fires, &c. All 

 these ceremonies are supposed to render the trees 

 productive for the coming season. 



I once had occasion to pass the night preceding 

 Twelfth-Day at a lone farm-house on the borders 

 of Dartmoor, in Devonshire, and was somewhat 

 alarmed at hearing, very late at night, the re- 

 peated discharge of fire-arms in the immediate 

 vicinity of the house. On my inquiring in the 

 morning as to what was the cause of the un- 

 seasonable noise, I was told that the farm-men 

 were firing at the Apple-trees in the orchard, in 

 order that the trees might bear a good crop next 

 season. 



If these observances tended in the least degree 

 to confer a benefit on the trees, they would not 

 be mis-spent, for of all the fruit-trees cultivated 

 in this country, the Apple is by far the most 



* The faille of tlie dragon which guarded the golden apples in the 

 Garden of the Hesperides is probably derived from this source. 



X 



