Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/215

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QUINCE.
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stroyed by it: Coes’ Golden Drop, Magnum Bonum, Kirk’s Late Red, and Bingham; while the Green Gage, Morocco, Wine Sour, Orleans, and Washington, are not or but slightly, injured. As a cure, fifteen or twenty pounds of salt, or salt brine, is strongly recommended by some. It is laid under the tree early in Autumn. This is to destroy the insects, which lie under the surface of the ground all Winter. We doubt not but repeated doses of this will destroy them.


QUINCE.

Prus Cydònia.—Coignassier, Fr.—Quittenbaum, Ger.

The Quince is supposed to be the Golden Apples of the ancients. It is a native of Austria, and is believed to have been cultivated in Britain three hundred years. Pliny writes, in his time, of their growing wild in hedge-rows, so large as to weigh down the boughs to the ground. Moderns use it only after being stewed, baked, or preserved. Quince marmalade is a favorite conserve, and Quince wine has been known to cure obstinate asthmatic complaints. There are only two varieties and a species that are worth notice.

Apple, or Orange Quince.—The fruit large, of a round-oval shape; skin very smooth; color, when ripe, a bright golden- yellow. A clean growing tree and a great bearer. Ripe in September and October.

Portugal Quince.—Fruit round, large size; color bright yellow. A strong-growing tree and bears a fair crop. This variety is used as stocks on which to bud or graft Pears; they fruit earlier upon it, and are much dwarfed by the process. It is a very general practice with the French, and for small gardens may be done to advantage in this country, but will not do for orchards.

Pyrus Sinensis, or Chinese Quince.—Shrub of upright growth, with pink flowers. Fruit very large, long-oval, smooth and regularly formed; color greenish-yellow. Flesh firm,