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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  8,  1900. 
tbe  cross  was  added,  and  this  belief  was  not  condned  to  English, 
but  is  mentioned  by  continental  writers  too. 
Gerarde  in  his  quaint  way  declares,  “  The  crosse  I  might 
perceive,  but  the  man  I  leave  to  be  sought  for  by  those  that  have 
better  eyes  and  judgment  than  myselfe.”  He  calls  the  Musa 
“Adam’s  Apple  Tree.”  Leo  Grindon  was  of  opinion  that  the 
forbidden  fruit  was  the  Quince,  and  others  show  reason  for  thinking 
the  Apricot  must  have  been  the  tree,  and  to  these  fruits  the  golden 
Apples  of  the  Hesperides  have  been  also  referred,  as  well  as  to  the 
Orange. 
The  Pine  Apple  presents  a  curious,  though  a  by  no  means 
solitary  example,  of  the  way  names  were  transferred  from  one  plant 
to  another.  For  a  very  long  time  the  Pine  Apple  was  most  conjinonly 
known  as  the  Ananas.  In  Johnston’s  edition  of  Gerarde  it  is  called 
the  Pine  Thistle,  and  Evelyn  in  1661  refers  to  it  as  the  “  Queen 
Pine,”  and  in  1668  as  the  “  King  Pine.”  Bradley,  in  his  “  New 
Improvements,”  gives  with  a  figure  of  the  plant  two  or  three 
articles  on  the  culture  of  this  fruit,  and  truly  says  it  “  is  call’d 
the  Pine  Apple  from  the  resemblance  the  shape  of  its  fruit  bears 
to  the  cones  or  Apples  of  the  Pine  tree.”  Fir  cones  were  invariably 
called  Pine  Apples  by  all  the  old  writers.  One  of  them,  in  a 
work  on  fishing,  among  other  strange  material  for  bait,  recom¬ 
mending  the  “kirnels  of  Pynapple  trees  burnt.”  How  naturally 
it  would  follow  that  the  new  fruit  should  receive  a  name  -so 
expressive  ot  its  appearance,  till  it  alone  retained  it,  requires  no 
comment. 
Of  Love  Apples,  or  Apples  of  Love,  there  were  no  less  than  three 
distinct  species  of  plants  known  by  that  designation,  and  of  these  the 
one  of  greatest  antiquity  is  perhaps  the  Mandrake,  or  more  correctly, 
Mandrage,  which  figures  largely  in  the  superstitious  beliefs  of 
mediaeval  and  ancient  times.  The  revisers  of  the  Old  Testament 
have  given  in  a  marginal  note  the  reading  “Love  Apple”  for  the 
well  known  “Mandrake”  in  Genesis,  but  consider! ug  the  latter  is  a 
name  about  which  there  can  be  no  dubiety,  while  “  Love  Apple  ”  i.«, 
or  was,  applied  to  other  two  plants,  the  old  reading  is  undoub'edly 
the  better.  The  common  Love  Apple  of  to-day  is  the  popular 
Tomato,  which  was  regarded  300  years  ago  as  a  food  not  beyond 
suspicion,  and  as  a  fact  few  people  in  England  cared  to  use  it.  Lytf> 
who  never  saw  it,  thought  it  “dangerous  to  be  used.”  Gerarde 
grew  the  plant  as  a  curiosity,  but  condemns  its  use.  In  “  The 
Countrie  Farme  ”  (1600)  it  is  said  to  provoke  “  loathing  and 
vomiting.” 
Parkinson  states,  “  Wee  onely  have  them  for  curiosity  in  our 
gardens,”  and  so  it  continued  till  near  the  middle  of  last  century,  when 
they  were  cultivated  here  and  there  for  flavouring  soups.  Tomato,  it 
may  be  noted,  is  the  Spani.-h  name  Lr  the  plant,  and  it  is  only  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century  that  it  has  displaced  the  older  name  of 
Love  Apple.  Another  of  its  old  names  was  Golden  Apple.  The  third 
plant  on  which  the  name  of  Love  Apple  was  bestowed  is  the  Egg 
plant,  Solanum  ovigerum.  By  that  name  it  is  referred  to  in  “  The 
Countrie  Farme,”  and  in  terms  by  no  means  respectful  lo  so  interesting 
a  fruit.  But  none  of  the  old  writers  really  esteemed  it,  but  on  the 
contrary  warned  their  readers  against  using  it.  “  Mad  ”  Apple  was  its 
commonest  name,  and  Lyte  calls  it  also  the  Raging  Love  Apple.  The 
French  have  yet  another  Love  Apple  (Pomme  d’Amour),  Solanum 
Sodomseum. 
The  Balm  or  Balsam  Apple  is  not  without  interest,  inasmuch  as 
we  find  the  common  Balsam  of  our  greenhouses  almost  always 
associated  with  it  generally  as  the  Female  Balsam  Apple,  but  in 
Davies’  “Tneory  and  Practice,”  this  plant  occurs  without  the 
distinguishing  name  indicative  of  sex.  The  first  named  is  the 
Balsamina  momordica,  and  very  early  we  find  it  recommended  under 
the  name  of  Marvellous  Apples  to  plant  on  arbours.  The  latter 
designation,  and  also  “  gratious  Apples,”  they  had  “  because  of  the 
marvailous  vertue  that  they  have  to  heale  w^undes.”  Gerarde 
mentions  a  case  which  occurred  at  Colchester  of  a  merchant’s  wife  who 
had  been  struck  by  lightning  having  been  cured  by  application  of 
Marvellous  Apples.  Datura  stramonium  appears  at  an  early  date  as 
the  “Apple  of  Perowe,”  and  the  “  Pricklie  land  Thornie”  Apple.  The 
corms  of  Cyclamens  had  the  familiar  appellation  of  Apples  of  the 
Earth. 
The  Apple  itself,  Pyrus  mains,  has  a  history  bristling  with  points 
of  utmost  interest.  The  Paradise  Pippin,  for  instance,  was  used  on 
the  Continent  in  the  sixteenth  century  as  a  dwarfing  stock,  not, 
however,  br  cause  better  fruit.s  were  hoped  for  from  trees  on  that 
stock,  but  largely  to  make  them  more  suitable  as  hedge  plants.  The 
Paradise  was  already  cultivated  in  London  gardens  in  Gerarde’s  days, 
but  he  distinctly  states  “  without  grafting ;  ”  but  in  Parkinson’s  time 
the  practice  of  employing  it  as  a  dwarfing  stock  was  not  uncommon, 
and  for  the  same  purpose  as  noted  above,  to  “  make  a  hedgerow  of 
these  low  fruits.” 
Pomatum,  along  with  other  ingredients,  had  originally  Apples  in 
its  composition,  the  particular  vaiiety  being  the  Court  Pendu,  as  we 
find  in  French  recipes  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Apple  used  in 
England  for  this  composition  is  not  named,  but  not  improbably  it  may 
have  been  the  Pomwater,  or  Pome  Water,  a  variety  of  great  popularity 
which  can  be  traced  from  the  time  of  Lydgate,  the  poet  monk,  till  it 
disappears  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Far 
excellence  it  was  the  Apple  for  roasting,  hence  called  Malus  carbonaria, 
and  from  a  quotation  by  Brand  it  formed  one  of  the  edibles  so  freely 
dispensed  by  the  well-tc-do  to  the  working  classes  on  New  Year’s 
Day,  and  then,  as  would  seem,  also  roasted,  for  the  fruit  was  stuck  full 
of  Cloves.  It  was  also  selected  on  account  of  the  good  quality  of  its 
pulp  to  form  the  once  popular  Christmas  delicacy,  Lambswool,  which 
was  sometimes  used  medicinally  also.  The  Pomwater  enters  into  the 
composition  of  a  strange  “medicine  for  the  greatest  laske.”  The 
fruit  was  roasted  and  the  “pap”  mixed  with  an  equal  quantity 
of  chalk  “finely  scraped.”  This  was  placed  for  twenty-four  hours 
plaister-wise  above  the  region  of  the  stomach,  and  repeated  until 
a  cure  was  effected.  As  well  as  cooked,  it  was  eaten  in  winter  for 
dessert,  and,  according  to  Evelyn,  was  at  its  best  in  January  and 
February.  The  fruit  was  very  large,  and  not  unlike  in  shape  to  the 
Dutch  Codlin. 
Pomewater  is  no  doubt  a  coirupted  form  of  some  old  French 
appellative,  but  what  that  was  it  is  now  impossible  to  determine.  The 
partiality  shown  by  our  ancestors  for  certain  fruits  for  particular 
purposes  was  by  no  means  confined  to  tne  one  or  two  named,  Codlin 
pies  and  Codlin  tarts,  and  further  examples,  and  were  compounded 
largely  of  “  grene  Apples  from  the  trees  ”  coddled  in  “  scalding  water 
without  breaking.”  Kentish  Codlin,  according  to  Parkinson,  was  the 
“  best  to  coddle  of  all  other  Apples,”  and  Dr.  Hogg  has  identified  this 
with  the  English  Codlin,  a  fruit  like  to  but  somewhat  larger  than 
Keswick  Codlin,  but  the  tree  not  nearly  so  fruitful.  Pearson’s  Plate, 
according  to  Switzer,  was  cooked  in  Devonshire  in  the  same  way  as 
Beefings  are  in  Norfolk,  and  eaten  as  a  sweetmeat.  Pippins  were  cooked 
in  pies  as  well  as  being  eaten  after  dinner  like  John  Apples  and 
Pearmains.  Russettings  were  considered  the  best  of  Apples  for  cooking, 
and  the  Rambour  Franc  was  much  used  in  sweetmeats.  Reid  (1683) 
tells  us  that  in  Scotland,  among  other  ways  of  using  the  Apple,  the 
fruit  was  “  fry’d  by  shavers  (slices)  with  a  little  butter”  and  “stew’d 
betwixt  two  plates.” 
Two  hund.'ed  and  fifty  years  ago  cider  was  made  of  the  same 
fruits  as  are  popular  now  in  the  cider  counties,  but  we  find 
also  Golden  Pippin,  Kentish  Pippin,  Kentish  Codlin,  Pearmains, 
and  other  good  Apples  named  for  the  purpose  which  are  not  now 
employed. 
The  Apple  too  holds  a  no  small  place  in  folk  lore,  but  of  this 
phase  it  is  not  convenient  to  enter  on  now.  Snapdragon  bobbing  in  a 
tub  of  water  for  Apples  on  All  Hallows.  Still  customary  in  the  north 
on  Hallowe’en,  eating  an  Apple  in  front  of  a  looking-glass. 
Wee  Jennie  to  her  grannie  says, 
“  Will  ye  go  wi’  me  grannie  ? 
I’ll  eat  the  Apple  at  the  glass 
I  got  frae  uncle  Johnnie.  ’ 
Divining  by  means  of  parings  of  the  skin  and  the  kernels  of  Apples 
are  but  a  ft  w  of  these  forgotten  practices. — R.  P.  BeotheRstON. 
