PLATE L. 
yellow ground colour which shows itself between the streaks ; on the side which is shaded there is 
less crimson but more of the rich deep yellow ground ; the whole surface is strewed with minute 
dots. Eye: closed with long. segments, set in a narrow pretty deep and plaited basin. Stalk: 
half an inch long, short and deeply inserted in an irregularly furrowed cavity. Flesh : yellow, 
tender, sweet, and of good flavour. 
This is a very handsome apple, and of such good flavour that it may be used as a dessert 
apple. 
Both these varieties of Costard are good to eat when gathered ripe from the tree, but both 
are chiefly used as culinary apples, and have an excellent flavour in pudding or pie. The trees 
are generally old and rugged, for the variety has not been propagated of late years. 
Scattered through the farm-house gardens of Herefordshire several varieties of apples are to be 
found, which seem to owe their origin to the old Costard. They are all large, ribbed, and with prominent 
angles round the eye, and more or less conical in shape. They vary very much in colour, from the 
clear rosy tint of the fruits here represented, to the light dull red of the Red Dick of North 
Herefordshire, or the deep purplish red of the Five Fingers with its swollen base and its five sharply 
projecting angles round the eye Then comes the large pale green Goose Apple , which possibly 
takes its name from its more narrow elongated shape, and its two marked angles at the eye, giving 
a rough resemblance to a goose’s head. There are some other local green varieties, passing gradually 
in shape and appearance towards the Cat’s-head, but none of them have been much propagated of 
late years. They are doubtful bearers, and with all of them, the size and weight of the fruit they 
produce, render storms of wind and rain very destructive to the crop. The Cat's-head is supplanting 
them all. 
