449 



SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE 



OP 



APPLES, 



ARRANGED AS DESSERT AND CULINARY FRUITS. 



Apple, Pyne.t Mahis, of L'mnmis, — belongs to the class Icosfnxhia, and order 

 Pentagynia, ami natural order Rosacece. Is a native of Britain, as well as most 

 parts of Eiiropc. 



The apple is, of all the numerous fruits cultivated in the British gardens, the 

 most useful ; and is brought (o a higher degree of perfection with less trouble than 

 any other. It can accommodate itself almost to ail soils, situations, and climates, 

 that the middle and southern parts of Europe afford. At what time, or in what 

 manner, the cultivated apple attracted the notice of the inhabitants of these king- 

 doms is not known. The uncultivated apple, or crab, must have been known to 

 the aborigines ; and the cultivated apple, in all probability, was introduced by the 

 Romans. Pliny, the Roman Historian and Naturalist, knew of twenty varieties. 

 It is probable that all, or at least part of those were brouglit by that people into 

 this island ; and if they, as well as other fruits, were lost after tlic Romans deserted 

 this country, they must have been re-introduced by the Normans, soon after the 

 conquest. It is not improbable, but that many of the apples introduced by the Ro- 

 mans were first planted in the neighbourhood of Hereford, where the Romans 

 were long stationed. Ilaller mentions apple-trees in Herefordshire that had attained 

 the great age of one thousand years, and were still prolific ; but Mr. Knight con- 

 siders two hundred years to be the ordinary duration of that tree. Herefordshire, 

 it appears, was planted with apple and pear-trees at an early period : the aged 

 pear-tree at Holme Laccy being a proof of that circumstance, as well as of the great 

 longevity of that tree. Lord Scudamore, the then proprietor of Holme Lacey, while 

 ambassador at the court of France, in Charles the First's time, is said to have col- 

 lected, in Normandy, grafts of cider-apples, which he afterwards had grafted and 

 planted in Herefordshire. In Henry the Eighth's time, his fruiterer, Harris, planted 

 many Flanders apples and pears in Kent, probably some of which remain till this 

 day. Of the merits, or number of varieties of apples cultivated so early, we have 

 no certain information ; and it would be unjust to judge of them by their present 

 qualities. They, like most other plants, are supposed to have a limited duration ; 

 and therefore, on taking a retrospective view of the fruits of the early cultivators, 

 or judging of the merits of such fruits by the old trees found near monastic ruins, 

 we should not be doing them sufficient justice, as they are found so degenerated, or 

 diseased, as no longer to deserve the attention of the cultivator ; still they may 

 have been excellent fruits when in their prime. Knight observes, " the moil, and iis 

 successful rival the red-streak, the musfs, and golden pippin, are in the last stogc of 

 decay, and the stire and fox-whelp are hastening rapidly after them." The sarce 

 horticulturist, after having made a variety of experiments to propagate or renevr 



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