An excellent culinary apple admirably adapted for sauce; but too acid for the dessert. It is in use from January to April.
The tree is a vigorous grower, and an excellent bearer.
This variety was raised in 1807, by Thomas Netherton Parker, Esq., of Sweeny, in Shropshire, and twenty specimens of the fruit, were exhibited at the London Horticultural Society, in 1820, the aggregate weight of which, was seven pounds thirteen ounces.
354. SYKE HOUSE RUSSET.—Hooker.
- Identification.—[Hook. Pom. Lond.] [Hort. Soc. Cat.] ed. 3, n. 752. [Lind. Guide], 100. [Fors. Treat.] 126. [Rog. Fr. Cult.] 106.
- Synonymes.—Sykehouse, acc. [Hort. Soc. Cat.] Englische Spitalsreinette, [Diel Kernobst.] x. 139.
- Figures.—[Hook. Pom. Lond.] t. 40. [Pom. Mag.] t. 81. [Ron. Pyr. Mal.] pl. xxxviii. f. 1.
Fruit, below medium size, two inches and a quarter broad, by one inch and three quarters high; roundish-oblate. Skin, yellowish-green, but entirely covered with brown russet, strewed with silvery grey scales; sometimes it has a brownish tinge on the side which is exposed to the sun. Eye, small and open, set in a shallow basin. Stalk, half-an-inch long, inserted in a shallow cavity. Flesh, yellowish, firm, crisp, and juicy, with a rich, sugary, and very high flavor.
One of the most excellent dessert apples; it is in use from October to February.
The tree is a free grower, hardy, and an excellent bearer; it attains about the middle size, and is well adapted for growing as an espalier, when grafted on the paradise stock.
This variety originated at the village of Syke House, in Yorkshire, whence its name.