PLATE LXXI. 
4. MINCHALL CRAB. 
[Syn : Minshull Crab ; Minchains Crab ; Minchin Crab; Lancashire Crab ; Lancaster Crab.\ 
This apple received its name from the village of Minchall in Cheshire, where, according to 
Rogers, the original tree existed in 1777. It is figured in Brookshaw’s “ Pomona Britannica ,” 
Plate XCIII. 
Description. —-Fruit: above medium size, three inches wide, and two and a half inches high ; 
roundish and considerably flattened, almost oblate. Not unlike the Blenheim Orange in shape, but 
more flat. Skin : yellow, covered with dark dots, and a few veins of russet; russety over the base, 
and marked with broken stripes and mottles of pale crimson on the side next the sun. Eye : large 
and open, with short and rugged segments, set in a wide, shallow, and plaited basin. Stalk : half 
an inch long, inserted in a rather shallow cavity. Flesh : white, firm, crisp, and juicy, with a rough 
and sharp acid flavour. 
An excellent culinary apple, in season from November to March. “ One of the best sauce 
apples that grows,” says Brookshaw. “It has a brisk tartness of taste, that gives it a very agreeable 
flavour in a pie ; and it does not lose its substance in baking or boiling so much as many others, and 
will keep considerably longer than most baking apples.” 
The tree is very robust and hardy, not subject to canker, or the attacks of insects. It bears 
regularly and abundantly. 
