A good dessert apple, of second-rate quality; in use from December to March.
The tree is hardy and a vigorous grower, producing enormous crops, and on that account extensively cultivated, particularly in Kent, for the supply of the London markets. Though a good apple it is one more deserving the attention of the orchardist than the fruit gardener.
145. GOLDEN MONDAY.—Switz.
- Synonyme.—Monstow’s Pepping, [Ditt. Handb.] iii. 41.
Fruit, small, about two inches and a half wide, and two inches high; roundish, inclining to oblate. Skin, smooth, pale grass green on the shaded side; but fine clear golden yellow dotted with crimson dots, on the side exposed to the sun, and in some parts marked with ramifications of very thin delicate brown russet, which generally issue from the basin of the eye. Eye, small, and rather open, with narrow, acute, and stiff segments, set in a narrow and plaited basin. Stalk, very short, not a quarter of an inch long, quite embedded in a narrow, round, and rather deep cavity, which, with the base, is covered with very thick and rough scaly russet. Flesh, yellowish-white, crisp, not very juicy, sugary, brisk, and perfumed, not unlike the flavor of the Golden Pippin.
A very excellent dessert apple of first-rate quality; in use from October to Christmas.
I do not know what the Golden Mundi of Forsyth is, which he describes as a fine handsome apple, beautifully streaked with red; but that now described is the Golden Monday of the Berkshire orchards, and the same as has been cultivated in the Brompton Park nursery for upwards of a hundred years.
The Golden Russet is sometimes called by the name of Golden Monday, but it is a very distinct variety from this.