Ralls Janet

{{Short description|Apple cultivar}}

{{Infobox cultivar

| name = 'Ralls Janet'

| image = Pomological Watercolor POM00002878.jpg

| image_caption =

| genus = Malus

| species = M. domestica

| hybrid =

| group =

| cultivar = 'Ralls Janet'

| origin =

| subdivision =

}}

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'Ralls Janet' is an apple cultivar that is also known by many other names.{{citation |chapter-url=http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=4950&&fruit=apple |title=National Fruit Collection |access-date=18 October 2015 |publisher=University of Reading and Brogdale Collections |chapter=Ralls Janet}} It has been used extensively in modern apple breeding, and has several commercially important offspring.{{which|date=November 2021}} It was grown at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson.{{cite book |title=The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello |last=Hatch |first=Peter J. |year= 1998 |publisher= University of Virginia |location= United States |isbn= 0-8139-1746-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDHz7htpBTUC}}

It has been said that the name derives from Edmond-Charles Genet, a Frenchman who gave cuttings to Jefferson, who then passed them on to Virginia nurseryman Caleb Ralls, but this claim, cited here from 1905, was not made until about 100 years after the apple became known and may not be accurate.{{citation |author1=Beach, S.A. |author2=Booth, N.O. |author3=Taylor, O.M. |year=1905 |title=The apples of New York |publisher=J. B. Lyon |location=Albany |chapter-url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56420#page/456/mode/1up |chapter=Ralls |volume=1 |pages=270–272}}

In 1871, Dr. William Howsley reported that Caleb Rawles {{sic}} introduced the variety in 1795 as the Genet Apple.{{cite book |title=Proceedings of the 13th Session of the American Pomological Society |year=1871 |author=William Howsley |chapter=Report of Dr. Howsley on Nomenclature of Apples |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2706888&view=1up&seq=74}}