This French cider apple has several other virtues. Though it
blooms and burgeons late, growth proceeds thereafter at such a pace that the fruit becomes ripe at very much the same date as its more susceptible neighbours. It net only bears more regularly than most other sorts, owing to its immunity from the standard menaces : it also bears fruit in self-sacrificing profusion. The attribute will suggest the one weakness of this paragon : its boughs and twigs are not equal to the burden of the fruit. As frequently happens to some of the best varieties of plum, the weight of fruit breaks the thin weak branches to smithereens. Even the trunk may be rent. The many virtues and single frailty of this desirable apple have suggested to perhaps the greatest of our research workers that the one weakness may be eliminated and the many fine qualities preserved. Hence this apple-tree, bearing the twelve apostles of a new creation.
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