In Ellis’s “Modern Husbandman,” he says the Catshead is, “a very useful apple to the farmer, because one of them pared and wrapped up in dough, serves with little trouble for making an apple-dumpling, so much in request with the Kentish farmer, for being part of a ready meal, that in the cheapest manner satiates the keen appetite of the hungry plowman, both at home and in the field, and, therefore, has now got into such reputation in Hertfordshire, and some other counties, that it is become the most common food with a piece of bacon or pickle-pork for families.”
IDENTIFICATION.--Hort. Soc. Cat. ed. 3, n. 132.
Fruit, rather above medium size; roundish and flattened at both ends. Skin, rich deep yellow, with spots and patches of lively red on the shaded side; and bright red streaked and mottled with dark crimson next the sun, with here and there a tinge of yellow breaking through. Eye, large and open, with short, acute, and reflexed segments, and set in a shallow and slightly plaited basin. Stalk, very short, inserted in a funnel-shaped cavity. Flesh, white, tender, juicy, brisk, and pleasantly flavored.
A culinary apple of the first quality; in use during October and November. It is a fine, showy, and handsome apple, bearing a strong resemblance to the Nonesuch, from which in all probability it was raised. It originated with Mr. Leonard Phillips, of Vauxhall.
SYNONYMES.--Siberian Crab _of some_. Kirschapfel, Pomme Cerise, _Diel Kernobst._ ix. 238.
Fruit, very small, about three quarters of an inch broad, and the same in height; oblato-oblong. Skin, thin, and shining, of a beautiful lemon color on the shaded side, but entirely covered with dark blood-red on the side exposed to the sun, and which extends towards the shaded side of a fine crimson. Stalk, very slender, an inch and a half long, inserted in a small round cavity. Eye, small, without any segments, and placed in a shallow basin. Flesh, yellow, firm, crisp, and juicy, with a very pleasant and lively sub-acid flavor.
A beautiful little apple, more resembling a cherry in its general appearance than an apple. It is ripe in October.
The tree, when full grown, is from fifteen to twenty feet high, and produces an abundance of its beautiful fruit. It is perfectly hardy, and may be grown in almost any description of soil. It forms a beautiful object when grown as an ornamental tree on a lawn or in a shrubbery.