A-pril 10, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
505 
stitute for a sheep, and it being deemed that the 
sacrifice was acceptable, the Apple was thenceforth 
devoted to Hercules. The God Apollo was some¬ 
times represented with the Apple in his hand. The 
Saxons highly prized the Apple, and in many towns 
established a separate market for the fruit.” The fol¬ 
lowing sentence from their Coronation Benediction 
shows with what importance it was regarded :—” May 
the Almighty bless thee with the blessing of heaven 
above, and the mountains and valleys with the 
blessings of the deep below, with the blessings of Grapes 
and Apples. Bless, 0 Lord, the courage of this Prince, 
and prosper the work of his hands, and by thy blessing 
may this land be filled with Apples, with the fruit and 
dew of heaven, from the top of the ancient mountains, 
Cactus Dahlia, Lady E. Dyke : flowers yellow. 
from the Apples of the eternal hills, from the fruits of 
the earth and its fullness.” 
The native countries of the Apple cannot be said to 
be certainly known. According to De Candolle, it ap¬ 
peared to be most truly indigenous in the district 
lying between Trebizond and Ghilan, North Persia. 
He believes it to be a native also of the mountains of 
South-west India, and of Europe in general, excepting 
the extreme north, Britain included. Karl Koch, on 
the other hand, whose views and opinions are never to 
be treated lightly, while he allows the Asiatic claim, 
considers that the Apple is only naturalized in Europe, 
though the introduction may have taken place in pre¬ 
historic times. That it existed in Europe at that remote 
period is proved by the remains of Apples found in the 
Swiss Lake-dwellings. Mr. Loudon considered that it 
was in all probability brought over by the Romans, to 
whom twenty-two varieties at least were known in 
Pliny’s time. By other authorities it has been con. 
sidered an indigenous tree, or at all events familiar to 
the ancient Britons. Dr. Hogg, in a work on the 
Apple, published some years ago, considered it to be an 
indigenous tree, or at all events familiar to the ancient 
Britons. In the ancient British or Celtic language, it 
is called Abhal or Abhall; in Gallic, Avail ; in Cornish, 
Avil or Aval; and in Armorie, Avail or Afall—words 
derived from the Gallic or pure Celtic, for around body 
or ball. 
That the Apple was known before the Norman con¬ 
quest there are numerous instances to prove, it being 
mentioned by William of Malmesbury in 973, who says 
that King Edgar lay down 
under the shade of a Wild 
Apple tree, while hunting. 
We have evidence that 
Apples were cultivated in 
orchards at an early date, 
records as far back as the 
tenth century confirm this. 
In a bull of Pope Alexander 
III., a.d. 1175, is mentioned 
‘ 1 the town of twining with 
all lands, orchards, meadows, 
&c.” Again, in a charter re¬ 
lating to a grant of land by 
King John to the priory of 
Lanthony, near Gloucester, 
occurs the following, “to 
the'churcli at Herdsley, with 
twelve acres of land and an 
orchard. In the early part of 
the thirteenth century a 
large cider manufactory 
existed at Richmond, in 
Yorkshire. 
The earliest varieties of 
the Apple of which we find 
any mention appear to be 
the Pearmain and Costard, 
the former was cultivated 
in Norfolk as early as the 
year 1200, for we find in 
Blomefield’s History of Nor¬ 
folk, that 200 Pearmains, 
and 400 hogsheads of cider 
of Pearmain was paid into 
the Exchequer yearly at the 
feast of St. Michael for a 
tenure of land. Of the 
latter, the Costard Apple, 
we find in the fruiterer’s 
bills of Edward the First, 
in 1292, mention is made of 
“Porno Costard” (the Cos¬ 
tard Apple of the present 
day) which was sold at that 
time for “a shilling a hun¬ 
dred.” Dr. Hogg, in his 
Fruit Manual, says, “The 
Costard is one of our oldest 
English Apples. The true 
Costard is now rarely to be 
met with, but at an early 
period it must have been 
extensively grown, for the 
retailers of it were called 
Costardmongers, an appella¬ 
tion now transferred into 
costermongers. It is men¬ 
tioned by William Lawson, in 1597, who, in his quaint 
style, says, ‘ Of your Apple trees you shall find differ¬ 
ence iu growth. A good Pipping will grow large, and 
a Costard tree stood them on the north side of your 
other Apples, thus being placed, the least will give 
shelter to the rest, and the greatest will shroud their 
fellows. ’ ” 
According to Stow, carp and pepins were brought to 
England by Mascal, who wrote on fruit trees in 1572. 
Tusdorf in 1573, mentioned in his list of fruits, “Apples 
of all sorts. ” In Parkinson, 1629, we find a list of fifty- 
nine sorts, with “twenty sorts of Sweetings, and none 
good.” 
Hartup, a writer of the Seventeenth Century 
mentioned the case of a pomologist, who about his 
time (1652) possessed 200 different varieties, and 
THE APPLE, MYTHICAL AND 
HISTORICAL. 
In his most interesting book on Fruits and Fruit 
Trees, Mr. Leo. Grindon says of the Apple : —“No one 
ever tires of the Apple. It is to fruits in general what 
good wlieaten bread is to other accustomed fruits ; while 
it satisfies, it never clogs. There is no time of life, 
either when the Apple becomes a superfluity, or is no 
longer suitable for aliment. As for boys and girls in 
fair health, for them the Apple would almost seem to have 
been piimarily created. There is a period in the life of 
children when they are hungry all over, voracious at 
every pore, eat they must and will, flying to cakes and 
mischievous sweets, candies and confections, unless 
judiciously supplied with what is really wholesome. 
Bread is deficient in savour; 
fruit fully ripened and of 
simple kinds is the happy 
medium, and in no shape is 
it better for them than that 
of the Apple.” A high 
medical authority on hy¬ 
gienics, states: “Apples 
should be eaten raw up to 
3 p.m., and cooked after, 
and then they lie easy on 
the stomach.” And other 
medical authorities are found 
strongly advising that greasy 
foods should be to a large 
extent, withheld from chil¬ 
dren, and fresh fruit be given 
freely with such things as 
oatmeal porridge and whole 
meal bread. 
The Apple has a remark¬ 
able history ; this fruit has 
figured largely in mythology. 
But as Mr. Grindon ob¬ 
serves :—“Not Apples to be 
eaten were those in the mind 
of the donor of the famous 
fable of Hippomenes and 
Atalanta, where the maiden 
loses the race through stop¬ 
ping to gather the too se¬ 
ductive ‘ poma aurea ’ ; nor 
were they veritable Apples 
in the picture of the golden 
fruit of the Hesperides, in 
that beautiful story of the 
three chaste young ladies far 
away in the west, who kept 
them safe from intrusion and 
curiosity.” “No wonder 
again, that painters of the 
Temptation of Eve, sustained 
by Paradise Lost, should em¬ 
ploy the Apple to represent 
the fruit of the Tree of 
Knowledge ; and in the 
authorised version of the Old 
Testament, whatever the 
Hebrews understood by tap- 
pHack, we read upon six 
occasions of ‘ Apples ’ and 
the ‘Apple tree.’ Notone 
of the scripture references 
carries illusion to the Apple 
of the English orchard. 
That the ancient Hebrew 
ever saw or knew anything of 
Apples of any kind, is in the 
highest degree improbable. The Hebrew word simply 
denotes something fragrant. The Quince, the Citron, 
the Apricot, have all in turn been suggested as the fruit 
meant.” 
“The Apple,” states Mr. R. Folkard in his book on 
Plant Lore, <kc., “was sacred to Venus, who is often 
represented with the fruit in her hand. The Thebans 
worshipped Hercules under the name of Melius, and 
offered Apples at his altar, the custom having according 
to tradition originated as follows :—The river Asopus 
being once so swollen as to prevent some youths from 
bringing across it a sheep destined to be sacrificed to 
Hercules, one of them recollected that the Apple was 
called by the same name Melon. In this emergency, 
therefore, it was determined to offer an Apple with 
four little sticks stuck in it to resemble legs as a sub¬ 
