JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
576 
[ December 23, 1880. 
length of the pinnae, as the name implies. Each of these are 
about 5 or 6 inches long, thus giving a breadth of 10 or 12 inches 
to the two or four divisions of the frond, which is also longer than 
in the type. In colour the young fronds are particularly attractive, 
for the rich deep green is tinted with a metallic blue that is very 
striking, and the lower surface has a fine glaucous hue. Other 
valuable characters are freedom and quickness of growth, in 
which respects it surpasses most of the species in general cul¬ 
tivation—amply sufficient to recommend it.—R. 
REVIEW. 
The Herefordshire Pomona. Edited for the Woolhope Club by 
Robebt Hogg, LL.D., F.L.S., &c. Part III. 
This magnificent work goes on as it began ; it has not belied its 
first promise, but if anything Part III. is beyond its predecessors. 
It follows the same lines. Just as in Part I. we had Dr. Bull’s 
paper on the “ Early History of the Apple and Pear,” and in 
Part II. the same writer’s article on “Modern Apple Lore,” so 
here in Part III. we have as introductory papers “ The Crab, its 
Characteristics and Associations,” by Mr. Edwin Lees, and Mr. 
Bulmer’s treatise on “ The Orchard and its Products,” the latter 
an exceedingly practical paper, treating of the orchard, soil, sur¬ 
face, drainage, aspect, climate, and site, manuring and planting ; 
then orchard trees ; seedlings, budding and grafting ; varieties, old 
and new ; pruning, and those enemies of the orchard tree Mistle¬ 
toe, blight, and red spider. Forty coloured figures of Apples and 
Pears follow, with sections of the same and descriptions. So 
much in regard to a general view of Part III. recently issued 
from the press. 
Mr. Lees, in his history of the Crab and its associations, carries 
us in thought away from winter and its dreariness to May and its 
blossoms, when 
“ The jay's red breast 
Peeps over her nest 
In the midst of the Crab blossoms blushing,” 
and makes one see the Crab’s delicately blended pink-and-white 
blooms, prettier far than the Apple. He tells us that the Crab 
existed in Europe and Asia ab originc, that it is mentioned in the 
Scriptures, that in the earliest days of England the roasted Crabs 
hissed in the bowl; still, the Crab of itself is a poor fruit, only 
eaten with relish by each generation of rustic schoolboys, who 
will cat anything that looks like fruit. Harsh is the taste of the 
Crab, rugged its growth, and “ crabbed ” is a word taken from it 
and used to denote a very unpleasant type of man, for who of us 
wishes to have as a companion “a crabbed fellow ?” A Crab stick, 
too, was a peculiarly harsh and unpleasant weapon used only by 
these crabbed fellows. This Crabstick discipline no doubt origi¬ 
nated in savage times, and was perpetuated by only savage 
natures. Of such was the man in Southey’s ballad, where we 
learn that 
“ Bichard Peulake a scolding would take 
Till Patience availed no longer; 
Then Bichard Penlake his Crabstick would take. 
And show that he was the stronger.” 
Mr. Lees quotes, of course, from Shakspeare (we can quote Shak- 
speare on any subject!), from Milton, Cowley, Pope, and others 
to illustrate his subject. He tells us that even now (and we are 
surprised at it) Crab vinegar is still made in some secluded rural 
districts, and gives us an anecdote to prove its truth—that a farmer 
left behind him at his death a hogshead of this very sour vinegar 
—that his executor had it put in a barn, imagining that no such 
sour liquid would be furtively tapped. He was, however, mis¬ 
taken, for the labourers drank it, and so at the sale the cask was 
there but no liquid. Verily Worcestershire labourers would drink 
anything. Even our Wiltshire chawbacons object to sour beer, 
calling it “rot-gut,” but Worcestershire internals must be proof 
against all injury, and Worcestershire throats greedy in the very 
extreme. 
Mr. Lees carries us on merrily as to the uses of the Crab—how 
when roasted they were thrown hissing hot into the spiced ale ; 
how that west country damsels (Somerset girls, we suppose) 
gather Crabs, and putting them into a loft form them into the 
initials of their supposed suitors’ names, and those remaining 
most perfect on Old Michaelmas day were those of their truest 
lover. Nor is Shakspeare’s Crab tree near Bidford forgotten, 
though, like the deer-stealing tale, we do not believe a word 
of it. 
Crabbing the Parson must have been unpleasant work, at least 
for the poor parson, who on Dec. 13th, the feast of St. Kenelm, 
had to run to church amid a shower of Crabs thrown by village 
boys. But the days of Crab eatiDg, and Crab use, and Crab 
merriment are over. Yet as the remote ancestor of all the 
excellent cultivated varieties of the Apple, the Crab deserves to 
be remembered. May we enjoy its blossom and have that only in 
our thoughts, not crabbed relations or crabbed acquaintances ; 
friends of crabbed people we should certainly not make. 
Next follows “ The Orchard and its Products ”—cider and perry. 
This useful paper is to be continued in the next part of the 
Pomona. One of the mottoes or quotations at head of the 
chapter is this suitable one from Lord Bacon, “ We had also a 
drink, wholesome as good wine of the Grape, a kind of cider 
made of the fruit of that country.” It always is a surprise that 
with cider so easy of production that light claret, so utterly in¬ 
ferior as a drink, should be increasingly consumed, aDd I fear cider 
to the bulk of the population of this country is almost unknown. 
We cannot grow the Grape profitably, but we can grow the Apple. 
Somersetshire labourers work ably and gladly on cider; I doubt 
whether in this climate they could on that dark-coloured vinegar 
known as Gladstone claret. We need not import Apples from 
America if we were only energetic, and we equally need not so 
largely import light claret from France, ja drink that, save on a 
hot summer day, is unsuited to us ; and then on a hot summer 
day what so delicious as cider ? 
Mr. Bulmer in this chapter traces back the cider orchards in 
Normandy to the eleventh century, then their increase in the 
thirteenth and sixteenth centuries ; but that it was not till the 
seventeenth century had been well advanced that cider orchards 
were much planted here in England. Continental wars caused 
wine to cease to be imported, and we depended upon our home¬ 
made drinks. Poets and writers praised cider and perry. Squires 
and growers vied in its production, and success of course was the 
result. The labourers had a harmless and wholesome drink, so 
unlike the muddy muddling poisoned beer now obtained at 
the low public house. The prosperity of orchards was, however, 
not for long. Land was wanted for corn-growing and cattle-feed¬ 
ing, and orchards were neglected—just, in fact, an opposite state 
of things to that in this day ; so cider and perry went down and 
bad ports and sherries came up. On the continent it was the 
same—the same, too, half a century since in America, but is not so 
there now ; for American farmers are beginning to recognise the 
fact that no farm is complete without a well-selected and well- 
cultivated orchard. It should be so in England, for wisely says 
Mr. Bulmer, “ If free trade in corn and the introduction of live 
and dead meat restrict the profits of the farmers, happy are they 
who, as in the fruit districts of England, have their orchards to 
help them.” Mr. Bulmer further states that “the present con¬ 
dition of the English orchards is far from satisfactory, and they 
show sadly the result of long-continued neglect.” 
After this essay, practical remarks upon the soil suited for an 
orchard follow, headed by this general observation—“The Apple 
tree certainly prefers a sandstone wherever it is found, as the 
Pear rejoices in calcareous soil.” Still Apples and Pears often do 
well on neither soil. Magnificent Apples grow on the gravelly 
islands which lie among the Fens, and Pears do the same, though, 
no doubt, as old T, Andrew Knight observes, “ Every variety of 
Apple is more or less affected by the nature of the soil on which 
it grows.” In regard to cider fruit the soil is more important. 
The whole of Mr. Bulmer’s paper is well worth reading by all 
intending to plant an orchard, with a view particularly to the 
production of cider and perry. It is an able paper, interestingly, 
and therefore well written, for whatever is dull in style is a 
trouble to read and hard to remember. 
Next follow what all eyes appreciate—viz., the pictures. These 
are quite equal to those in the former parts. Plate 15, three 
baking Pears—Catillac, Uvedale’s St. Germain, and Bellissime 
d’Hiver, all admirably done, the last being perhaps the best. 
Following every plate are sections and descriptions of the varie¬ 
ties pictured, all extremely valuable. Plate 16, Golden Harvey 
and Cox’s Orange Pippin, two of each kind at different stages of 
ripeness, with a sprig of blossom of each. Plate 17 contains 
portraits of five excellent cooking Apples, all large and fit for ex¬ 
hibition—Waltham Abbey Seedling, Bedfordshire Foundling, 
Ecklinville Seedling, Hanwell Souring, and White Spanish 
Reinette. Plate 18, groups of perry-producing Pears, small and 
brown, with a glowing cheek for the most part. Plate 19, brightly 
coloured summer-eating Apples—the excellent Margaret, the pretty 
Summer Strawberry, and the matchless Irish Peach. In plate 20 
are two thorough exhibition Apples—Yorkshire Beauty and Lod- 
dington or Stone’s Apple. No Americans are beyond these in 
appearance. The latter, though bearing the name of a Kentish 
village, was originally from a nursery near Bath. Plate 21, two 
striking groups of Apples ; first Russets, with the apt quotation 
under, “There’s a dish of Leathercoats for [you,” the words 
bringing to one’s mind Justice Shallow’s seat in Gloucestershire, 
