ttle merit.
It is an early winter variety.

One is frequently asked about the Sheepnose apple, particularly by
older people who remember it from early days and who deplore its
infrequency in these latter times. The sheepnose shape--long-conical--is
an infrequent variation, as apples go, and apparently none of these
forms chances to have sufficient merit to keep it in the lists. The
name is often applied to the Black Gilliflower, an old apple more than
three inches long, dark red, of light weight perhaps because of the
large core, ripening late in autumn to midwinter. It seems to be
specially prized by children, perhaps in part because of its unusual
shape and in part by its aromatic fragrance; but it is not a high-class
apple, and is now little seen. With the Rambo, Vandevere, some of the
russets, Early Harvest, Jersey Sweet and other old worthies, it
probably will pass away unless rescued here and there by the amateur.
To the lover of choice fruit nothing is old; every succeeding crop is
as choice and new as is the new year itself, and one waits for it
again and again.

One hears of seedless and no-core apples, as also of pears. The core
is present but greatly reduced in size, and the seeds may be few and
small. I have also raised practically seedless tomatoes. All these are
infrequent variations that may be propagated by asexual parts
(cuttings, cions), but as yet none of them has any outstanding value.

The reader will now ask me about the water-core apples, so much sought
and prized by youngsters. The water-core is not characteristic of a
variety, although occurring in some varieties more frequently than in
others. It is a physiological condition, supposed to be associated
with a relatively low transpiration (evaporation) so that excess water
is held in the fruit. In certain seasons this condition is marked, and
also in cloudy regions and often on young trees that have an
over-supply of moisture. Yet such cores occur in old trees and
sometimes with more or less regularity. What the physiological
inability may be in such cases to dispose of excess moisture appears
to be undetermined.

Now and then one finds a double apple, with two fruits grown solidly
together, two blossom ends and a single stem. A seedling tree I knew
as a boy bore such apples frequently, sometimes a score of them among
the crop of the year. This, of course, is a malformation or
teratological state. Apparently two flowers coalesce to form thes