PLATE 6. 
APPLE, “ COX’S ORANGE PIPPIN." 
Of Apples there is now almost a bewildering variety, yet new ones 
continue to appear with great regularity year after year. Comparatively 
few of the newer varieties, however, seem to possess sufficient merit to 
induce apple-growers generally to take them up; or, perhaps, those who 
introduce them do not continue to advertise their virtues with that persistence 
which often leads to success. 
As “good wine needs no bush” so a really good apple needs no 
praise. One of the first and foremost Apples for eating purposes is 
undoubtedly Cox’s Orange Pippin, a specimen of which is shown in the 
accompanying plate According to the late Dr. Hogg’s Fruit Manual— 
“ this excellent variety was raised at Colnbrook Lawn, near Slough, Bucks, 
by a Mr. Cox, who was formerly a brewer at Bermondsey, and who retired 
to Colnbrook Lawn, where he devoted the remaining years of his life to 
gardening pursuits. The Apple originated in 1830, and is said to have 
been from a pip of Ribston Pippin.” 
Cox’s Orange Pippin is not one of the most vigorous growing of fruit 
trees. Indeed in some localities it fails altogether, and in others becomes 
so badly affected with canker that it has to be either grubbed up, or 
have the stocks re-grafted with a variety more suitable to the locality. 
In most places, however, it grows into a medium-sized tree, and seems 
to thrive best upon the Paradise Stock. The roundish ovoid fruits are 
of medium size, even and regular in outline. The greenish yellow ground 
colour of the skin is streaked with red, and often becomes deep crimson 
red on the sunny side in rich soils and certain localities, as well as being 
covered with streaks and patches of grey russet. Our plate shows a 
variety more highly coloured than is usually met with, but such a one 
is seen occasionally at large fruit exhibitions. The fruits are in season 
from October to February, and it is astonishing that British fruit-growers 
do not make a determined effort to put good examples of this—the finest 
eating apple known—upon the market in larger quantities during the autumn 
and winter months. 
At the Exhibition of British Apples at Chiswick in 1888, Cox’s Orange 
Pippin demonstrated its superiority over all other dessert apples except “ King 
of Pippins.” The last-named variety, in a census taken for the whole of 
Great Britain, received 9 votes more than Cox’s Orange Pippin, while another 
old favourite — Ribston Pippin—received 11 votes less. 
So far as England alone is concerned Cox’s Orange Pippin appears to 
hold unrivalled sway, and only commences to fall away as it nears the far 
north of Scotland. 
