446 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



From the earliest days writers have attempted, when describing 

 Apples, to place them in convenient groups. In Theophrastus we 

 find the earliest system that has come down to us. His groups were 

 Wild, Cultivated, Early, Late, Sweet, Epirote (those from Albania), 

 and Dionysian. 



The encyclopaedic Pliny chose his divisions for geographical 

 reasons mainly, but some of his classes are natural, as for example 

 the Farina, a type of our early fruits which soon turn mealy, and the 

 Melimela or honeyed fruits. 



The herbalists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also 

 made efforts in the same direction, as in the "Historia Stirpium" 

 of Cordus, where the main classes were Rotunda, Globosa, and Non 

 Rotunda, each being subdivided into Pulpa, Pulmentaria, Flava, 

 and Duracina. Jean Bauhin, in his "Historia Plantarum" (1650), 

 adopts a similar system, Rotunda, Oblonga, and Aliarum ; these 

 being again subdivided into varieties major and minor. 



A writer who is often credited with being the first to make a 

 Classification of Apples is Johannes Johnstonus, who published his 

 " Natural History of Plants " in 1662. Johnston was, however, 

 but a compiler and in this matter borrowed from Bauhin, and has no 

 claim to our attention, notwithstanding repeated assertion in pomo- 

 logical text-books. The first writer who made a serious attempt 

 was W. L. Manger, who published in 1780 his valuable " Vollstandige 

 Anleitung zu einer Systematische Pomologie." 



Manger (fig. 111) was the son of a gardener at Leipzig, who studied 

 Natural Science and Architecture, and received an official appointment 

 as Superintendent of Buildings under Frederick the Great at Potsdam. 

 As might be expected, the form of the fruit was in his eyes of con- 

 siderable importance, and his first plan was mainly upon these lines. 



His main classes were Round, Elliptical, Egg-shaped, Cylindrical, 

 Flat, Hyperbolic, and Parabolic. The accompanying illustration 

 (fig. 112) shows the frontispiece to his work and is of interest as being 

 the first of its kind. In working out the details of his scheme Manger 

 found that it was not entirely satisfactory, and he therefore added 

 other suggestions which are of a certain interest. 



The first contained Apples with a rough or russet skin as distinct 

 from the smooth-skinned. These were again divided into sweet 

 with firm flesh or tender flesh. The final classes were according to 

 flavour : astringent or harsh, wine-sourish, agreeably sour, and sweetish 

 sour. The last two classes show all the characters of a paper classifica- 

 tion, and when we meet further on with such divisions as " agreeably 

 sweet " and " disagreeably sweet " it is easy to understand why 

 Manger's attempt did not long withstand the test of practical use. 

 He claims attention as the first to publish a system and to work it 

 out in full detail, and no doubt did much to stimulate his followers 

 to further efforts. 



The next writer of importance is J. V. Sickler, who is best known 

 by his " Deutsche Obstgartner," a periodical which was produced 

 from 1794 to 1816, and which was extremely popular in its time. 



