340 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



all sorts of Pippins, but I know of no sort of Pippins but are 

 excellent, good, well-relished fruits. The 1 Flower of Kent ' is 

 a fair yellowish green apple, both good and great. The Gillo- 

 flower is a fine apple. The Grey Costerd is a good, great apple, 

 and abideth the winter. The Queening Apple is of two sorts, 

 both of them great, fair, red apples, and well relished, but the 

 greater is the best. The Leathercoat Apple is a good winter 

 apple, but of no great bigness. The Catshead takes the name 

 of the likeness, and is a reasonable good apple and great. 

 There are twenty sorts of Sweeting, and none of them good." 

 There is one other Apple in Parkinson's list, described by him as 

 " a very pleasant and good apple," and that is the " Geneting " — 

 still our best-flavoured first early Apple, now known as Juneating 

 or Ked Margaret. 



So much for old sorts dying out. 



I do not think many of my hearers could tell me the origin 

 of the word " pomatum." 



Old Parkinson says : " There is a fine sweet ointment made 

 of apples, which is much used to help chapped lips or hands, or 

 for the face, or other part of the skin that is rough with the 

 wind, to supple them and make them smooth, and the name of 

 the ointment is Pomatum, from the Latin word pomum." 



In the cider districts of Somerset some old rhymes contain, 

 as they often do, the experience of ages. They say : — 



If apples blow in March, 



For apples you may search ; 



If apples blow in April, 



Apples will be plentiful ; 



But if apples blow in May, 



You may eat apples night and day. 



The Setting of Hardy Fruit Blossom. 



There is much difference of opinion upon this subject amongst 

 writers upon fruit culture, but I do not think fruit growers vary 

 very much in their ideas upon the matter. I think the general 

 opinion amongst them is that frost is the chief agent in 

 determining the question of a good fruit crop or a bad, and I 

 noticed that this year we had a week of very inclement weather, 

 whilst the Pear trees were in bloom, followed by a very bad crop, 

 and that when the Apple trees were in blossom the weather 

 was showery for a week without a single frost in my district, and 



