December 24, 188?. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
267 
of King Henry VIII. The Nonpareil, according to 
Gerrarde, who published his account of Apples in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, was brought from France 
in the time of Mary, and first planted in the gardens of 
Oxfordshire. The Golden Pippin is considered to be the 
native growth of England, and is said to have been 
first reared at Parham Park, in Sussex. Catherine, 
Empress of Russia, was so fond of this Apple that she 
was regularly supplied with it from England. Then 
there is that delicious Apple, the Ribston Pippin ; it is 
a native of Ribston Park, Yorkshire. The original 
tree was raised from a pip brought from France in the 
year 1688. There is no doubt about this being the 
original tree, as the suckers produce fruit of the same 
kind, and such numbers have been propagated from 
it, that it is now to be met with in almost every garden. 
The orchards of Herefordshire were considerably 
increased, not only in number, but in extent, by the 
introduction of a quantity of the best cider Apples of 
France, by Lord Scudamore, the British Ambassador 
at the French Court, in the reign of Charles II. The 
celebrated John Ray, in 1688, was informed that there 
were seventy-eight sorts grown in the London nurseries. 
Miller, Abercrombie, and others of the old 'writers on 
gardening, enumerate or describe many kinds, and 
Forsyth, in 1806, describes 196 kinds. I have a very 
reliable catalogue of Apples, published in 1817, which 
contains 228 varieties, and it is put forward as a list of 
“only such varieties as are held in general estima¬ 
tion”; and the compiler complains that “Some eke 
out their catalogue of Apples to more than 500.” The 
last catalogue of fruits issued by the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society of London gives a list of 1,400, three- 
fourths of which are either synonyms, or fruits scarcely 
worthy of being grown. At the Apple Congress which 
took place in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, at Chiswick, in October, 1883, the number 
of different names applied to the Apples exhibited, 
including synonyms, amounted to 2,020, and the 
number of varieties described as presumably distinct 
was 1,545. 
The Apple does not ripen north of Sundswall, in 
Sweden, in latitude 62°, nor in the east of Europe, 
beyond latitude 57°. Its near relatives—the Pear and 
Quince—are not natives of England, but are found wild 
in the southern parts of Europe. 
The botanical name of the Apple is Pyrus Malus. 
The common name, Apple, appears to have been pretty 
much the same in various of the old languages and 
dialects ; as for instance the Welsh afal, derived from 
a more ancient form apalis. Dr. Prior, in his Popular 
Names of British Plants, states, “ In all the Celtic and 
Sclavonian languages the word is, with allowances for 
dialect, the same. This similarity, or we may say, 
identity of name, among alien nations would lead us 
to believe that it was brought with the tree from some 
other country ; and that, no doubt, an Eastern one : 
and that the garden Apple is not, as it is often supposed 
to be, merely an improved Crab, but rather the Crab a 
degenerate Apple. This was apparently, the only fruit 
wirh which our ancestors were acquainted before they 
came into Europe : for, with the exception of a few 
wild berries and the Hazel Nut, it is the only one for 
which we have a name that is not derived from the 
Latin or French.The meaning of the word 
is unknown.” The Apple is more tender than the Pear, 
Plum, or Peach, and more easily destroyed by frost. 
The blossoms of the Apple are latest in expanding, and 
the flowers are more injured by frost when in bud, than 
are those of the Pear when fully expanded. 
In conclusion, I may state that we find such terms 
as Codlin, Pippin, Reinette, Pearmain, and Russet 
applied to Apples. What is the etymology, or meaning 
of such terms ? Codlin, originally coddling, is from 
coddle, to stew or boil lightly, a boiling Apple—an 
Apple for coddling or boiling. In Shakespeare’s play of 
Twelfth Night appears this line, “ Like a codling, when 
he is almost an Apple.” Pippin is said to be derived 
from the Dutch pippling, and refers to spots or specks, 
on the sides of an Apple. Another account states that 
“ Pippins are so called because they are raised from 
seeds and pips, and will come into bearing in five or six 
years without grafting,” though no such definition can 
be found in any French dictionary. Reinette is, I 
believe, in the French a little queen, but it appears to 
have much the same significance as Russet and Pippin. 
It is said that the Reinette takes a much longer time 
to become fruitful than the Pippin, and that the two 
are quite distinct and easy of recognition by their 
seeds. In the case of the Pippin, the seeds, or pips, 
have the appearance of a boy’s top ; the Reinette, on 
the contrary, has them broad and flat. Russet is 
from the French rouge, red or ruddy. Pearmain is said to 
have reference to an Apple with the shape of the Pear, 
and signifies the great Pear Apple. 
Dr. Johnson, by way of illustrating the nutritious 
qualities of the Apple, tells us that he knew a clergyman 
of limited income who brought up a large family fed 
chiefly on Apple dumplings. I wish our hundreds of 
unemployed in London—the real, not the sham unem¬ 
ployed—could have one good meal of Apple dumplings 
daily during the winter months ; they might readily 
dispense with beer, tobacco, and flesh while their 
means are limited. During the present year, an old 
gardener, a neighbour of mine, was placed as a pensioner 
upon the funds of the Gardeners’ Royal' Benevolent 
Institution. He once informed me that it was in his 
grandmother’s cottage, when living in Windsor Forest, 
that King George III. expressed his wonder how on 
earth the Apple got into the dumpling the old lady 
had just served up for dinner !— Pi. Dean. 
-- 
HANGING OR BASKET PLANTS. 
These are too ornamental and beautiful to be 
neglected or ignored, and every window might with 
great propriety and advantage contain a few. They 
occupy a position not appropriated or interfered with 
by other plants, and their graceful habit has much to 
recommend them. In the way of flowering plants, 
what could be more handsome than Campanula 
isophylla, C. i. alba, C. fragilis, C. Barrelieri, Sedurn 
Sieboldi, S. S. medio-variegatus, Mimulus moschatus 
Harrisoni, Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, and Convolvulus 
mauritanicus ? Equally ornamental and appreciable 
are the Wandering Jew (Saxifraga sarmentosa), beautiful 
in flower or leaf, and furnished with long drooping 
runners ; Mother of Thousands (Linaria cymbalaria)— 
although the popular names of the last two might, with 
equal propriety, be reversed—Sedum sarmentosum, 
S. s. variegatum, Othonna crassifolia, a very interesting 
succulent, with slender pendent stems and cylindrical 
leaves ; Isolepis gracilis, white and blue Lobelias, 
varieties of L. erinus, various pendent or trailing species 
of Mesembryanthemum, Yinca major and V. minor, 
with their variegated forms ; Hydrocotyle vulgaris, 
II. sibthorpioides, Sibthorpia europsea, S. o. variegata, 
and the list might be endlessly augmented. 
"Wardian Cases and Aquaria. 
These afford a means of cultivating a most interesting 
class of plants, that could not otherwise be grown with 
any degree of perfection, and in some cases not at all 
in the dry atmosphere of rooms without the aid of such 
structures ; but by their use they can be brought under 
the art and heading of window gardening. Although 
many of the smaller British Ferns, both evergreen and 
deciduous, can be grown with reasonable success without 
the use of cases, they thrive much more satisfactorily 
in them, and are then objects of great beauty. The 
British Aspleniums, numbering half a score ; the 
Bladder Ferns (Cystopteris), Adiantums, various species ; 
filmy Ferns, including Todea superba, Hymenophyllum 
tunbridgense, H. unilatera-le or H. Wilsoni, H. poly- 
anthos, H. demissum, Trichomanes radicans, T. 
trichoides, T. pixidiferum, T. venosum, Selaginellas, 
and others can in this way be grown to great perfection. 
-->X<—-- 
THE CORDON SYSTEM OF 
TRAINING APPLE AND PEAR TREES. * 
The taste and liking for fruit in the human race 
developed itself to a pretty strong degree in the very 
earliest days of mankind, and the taste seems to have 
remained with us ever since. And as there is now no 
restriction concerning the fruits we may eat, it is the 
legitimate business of the cultivator to seek the best 
means of gratifying this universal taste. 
Means, that in bygone years have satisfied bygone 
demands, no longer fulfil the requirements of the 
present day. In the olden times, when all the events 
of life moved slowly on, people were content to wait 
for their fruit trees to grow and gradually develop 
themselves into a fruit-bearing condition. So contented 
were they with this supposed inevitable state of things 
that the old adage was accepted as truth—“He that 
plants Pears plants for his heirs. ” The universal hurry 
and speed, however, of the present day, render the old 
complacency no longer tolerable, and horticulture, like 
all other arts and sciences, has had to move on. The 
universal demand of to-day respecting fruit culture is 
for some form of tree and system of cultivation by 
which fruit can be obtained in the shortest possible 
time after planting. This requirement is very largely 
met by the adoption of the cordon system of culture, 
* A paper read by Mr. Joseph Cheal, at the Harpenden Apple 
and Pear Congress, December 7th. 
a system which has long been in practice in France, 
but has only comparatively recently been adopted here. 
Its French name, cordon, signifies a continuous line 
or extended cord, as applied to the original form of 
training as a horizontal edging, these trees when 
developed forming a continuous line. 
1 do not claim for the system that it should be 
entirely adopted by the larger market growers, who 
cultivate by acres, the old-established forms of 
standards or pyramids answering the requirements of 
those who can wait for the development of these forms. 
But where the object is to obtain fruit as quickly as 
possible after planting, the cordon system comes in to 
supply the want. And it is equally applicable to the 
large gardens of the wealth}', the medium-sized gardens 
of the amateur, of the suburban villa, or the more 
limited ones of the artisan and the cottager. Also 
market growers who desire quick returns of fruit of 
first-class quality and size are adopting it. On visiting 
the Channel Islands I have been particularly struck 
with the results of this system there. One clergyman’s 
garden in Guernsey so particularly impressed me that 
I think it deserves mention here. It was a garden of 
some half an acre in extent, and was entirely devoted 
to cordon Pear trees. The whole garden was divided 
into strips by light wooden fences, about 6 ft. high, 
running north and south, and upon each face of these 
were planted single cordons, trained to an oblique 
angle ; and with one horizontal line in front, and on 
either side of the intervening path. The enormous 
mass of fruit, and the size and quality of it, left an 
impression that I shall never forget, and the high prices 
realised for this fruit proved how remunerative the 
system was to him. 
The chief aim being to obtain fruit as quickly as 
possible, all trees intended for cordons must be worked 
upon dwarfing stocks, in order to check superabundant 
wood-growth and induce early fruitfulness. 
Pears are all worked on the Quince, and Apples on 
the Paradise stocks. They are all trained with one or 
two rods, as the case may be, and pruned to form fruit- 
spurs from the base upwards. Thus a tree, if properly 
handled from the first, will, at the end of the second or 
third season from working, be studded with fruit-spurs 
all round the stem to a height of from 4 ft. to 6 ft., 
according to the vigour of the variety. 
I may here mention that there are a few varieties of 
Apples that are not adapted to cordon culture—namely, 
those that fruit only on the terminal buds or at the 
ends of the branches, such as Devonshire Quarrenden, 
Early Juneating, or "Worcester Pearmain. With these 
the fruit-buds are removed by the close pruning 
required by cordons, and they will not readily form 
fruit-spurs close to the stem. There are also some 
varieties of the Pear that refuse to take kindly to the 
Quince stock. These have to be double-worked, using 
a suitable variety as a medium between the Quince and 
the reluctant Pear. Thus the dwarfing and fructifying 
influence of the Quince is obtained through a medium. 
Forms of Trees and Positions in which they 
may be Trained. 
Undoubtedly the original form from which the system 
derived its name was the horizontal. This consists of 
a tree with two branches, trained horizontally right and 
left, at about 15 ins. from the ground, or of one stem 
only bent into a horizontal position. These should be 
planted about 8 ft. or 10 ft. apart, with the stems bent 
down to follow each other in the same direction, and 
tied to a strained wire in order to retain them in 
position, each leader being continued in the same 
direction until it meets the stem of the next plant, to 
which, if desired, it may be grafted, and thus, when 
complete, will form one continuous line or cordon. 
Fruit of the largest size is often obtained from these 
low cordons, which is probably accounted for by the 
increased humidity derived from the soil at night, and 
by the radiation of heat by day. 
But the horizontal is by no means the most useful 
form of cordon. The upright or oblique is peculiarly 
well adaped for the covering of walls, buildings, or 
wooden fences, as, by the adoption of this system, such 
positions can be covered with fruit-bearing wood in a 
much shorter time than by any other method. In fact, 
the second season after planting a good crop is usually 
obtained from the whole surface to a height of 4 ft., 
5 ft., or 6 ft., and frequently a considerable crop is 
taken the first year. This system thus enables the 
cultivator to realise a full return for valuable wall 
space in the shortest possible time. 
If the space is of considerable height the trees should 
be planted 18 ins. to 2 ft. apart, and trained vertically. 
But should the wall or fence be only of an ordinary 
height, plant 2 ft, apart and train at an oblique angle, 
