'Plate V. 
3. STIRLING CASTLE. 
Messrs. Wm. Drummond & Sons, the nursery and seedsmen at Stirling, state that this 
apple was first brought to their notice about forty years ago by a Mr. Christie, an officer of Inland 
Revenue in Stirling, well known under the soubriquet of “ Pookum Christie,” who was a great amateur 
horticulturist. An “ Auld Citizen ” of Stirling, however, a man particularly well up in the archives 
of the “ Sons of the Rock,” informs us that the Messrs. Drummond are mistaken, and that the 
illustrious introducer of the Stirling Castle apple was a man known, some sixty years ago, as “Auld 
Johnnie Christie,” a nursery gardener, in a very humble scale, out at Causewayhead, on the road to 
the Bridge of Allan. However this may be, the wide dispersion of the apple is probably due to 
the appreciation of its merits by Messrs. Drummond & Son. 
Description. —Fruit; rather large, sometimes very large, round and oblate, and when of 
moderate size even and regularly shaped. Skin ; clear pea-green, which becomes yellow when it 
ripens ; with a blush and broken stripes of pale crimson on the side next the sun, and several large 
dots sprinkled over the surface. Eye; half closed, set in a pretty deep, wide, and saucer-like basin. 
Stalk ; an inch long, slender, inserted in a deep and wide cavity. Flesh ; white, very tender, juicy, 
and of the character of that of Hawthornden. 
An excellent culinary apple; “a gem of apples” a Herefordshire grower calls it, and says 
that “in addition to its other good qualities it is one of the best for making jelly.” Rivers speaks of 
it as an improvement on Small’s Admirable, and the improvement is certainly very great. It 
may be used in August and September but is best in flavour from October to December. 
The tree is well adapted for bush or pyramid culture. It is an immense bearer and will 
certainly become a general favourite when it is better known. 
