LITMIR.BIZ

      Fruit, below medium size; roundish oblate, rather narrower at the apex than the base, handsomely and regularly formed, without ribs or other inequalities. Skin, shining, pale waxen yellow in the shade, and bright deep red next the sun; it is strewed with dots, which are yellowish on the sunny side, and brownish in the shade, and marked with veins and slight traces of delicate, yellowish-grey russet. Eye, large and open, with long reflexed segments, placed in a rather deep, round, and pretty even basin. Stalk, short and slender, inserted in a narrow, even, and shallow cavity, which is lined with thin russet. Flesh, white with a yellowish tinge, crisp and delicate, brisk, juicy, and sugary, and with a rich, vinous, and aromatic flavor.

      A dessert apple of the first quality, in use from November to January.

      The tree is a free grower and very hardy, not subject to canker, and attains the largest size. It is very prolific when it has acquired its full growth, which, in good soil, it will do in fifteen or twenty years; and even in a young state it is a good bearer. If grafted on the paradise stock it may be grown as an open dwarf, or an espalier. The bloom is very hardy, and withstands the night frosts of spring better than most other varieties.

      This, above all other apples, is the most highly esteemed in Germany. Diel calls it the Pride of the Germans. It is believed to have originated either at a village of Misnia, called Borsdorf, or at a place of the same name near Leipsic. According to Forsyth, it was such a favorite with Queen Charlotte, that she had a considerable quantity of them annually imported from Germany, for her own private use. It is one of the earliest recorded varieties of the continental authors, but does not seem to have been known in this country before the close of the last century. It was first grown in the Brompton Park Nursery in 1785. It is mentioned by Cordus, in 1561, as being cultivated in Misnia; which circumstance has no doubt given rise to the synonyme “Reinette de Misnie;” he also informs us it is highly esteemed for its sweet and generous flavor, and the pleasant perfume which it exhales. Wittichius, in his “Methodus Simplicium,” attributes to it the power of dispelling epidemic fevers and madness!