"The rotten apple injures its neighbour."
The utter dissimilarity which often exists between two persons, or things, is jocularly enjoined in the familiar adage:—
"As like as an apple is to a lobster,"
And the folly of taking what one knows is paltry or bad has given rise to an instructive proverb:—
"Better give an apple than eat it."
The folly of expecting good results from the most unreasonable causes is the subject of the following old adage:—
"Plant the crab where you will, it will never bear pippins."
The crab tree has also been made the subject of several amusing rhymes, one of which is as follows:—
"The crab of the wood is sauce very good for the crab of the
sea,
But the wood of the crab is sauce for a drab that will not her
husband obey."
The coolness of the cucumber has long ago become proverbial for a person of a cold collected nature, "As cool as a cucumber," and the man who not only makes unreasonable requests, but equally expects them to be gratified, is said to "ask an elm-tree for pears." Then, again, foolish persons who have no power of observation, are likened to "a blind goose that knows not a fox from a fern bush."