API PETIT 
AMEKICAE' EABT APPLE 
^ Apples that grace the dessert, this is 
confessedly the most beautiful ; and its tiny 
dimensions rather increase than diminish its 
attractions. It is not its glossy brilliant crimson 
alone that induces the eye to rest on it with pleasure, but it is 
the melting of this into ivoiy tints — sometimes as gradual as 
day-break — sometimes with brighter abruptness, just as the 
iTiddy cloud bounds the softened light of the setting sun. Resi- 
dents of London, during the last winter, could but be stmck 
with the appearance of this brilliant fruit decorating the win- 
dows of the metropolitan fniiterers. In productive seasons, 
like the last, it has been extensively imported into England 
from America, although it is probable that England knew the 
Lady Apple before it knew America — before Columbus had 
looked on the waters of the Orinoco. It is, doubtless, of veiy 
ancient origin, and is said to have been introduced to France 
from the Peloponnesus. This may possibly be the original 
Apple referred to in French dictionaries under the name Api, 
