Apples, 17th century herbal medicine. This table consists is annotated artworks of several varieties of apples, and is part of a work describing the characteristics and uses of various plants and their fruits in herbal medicine. There are thousands of known types (cultivars) of apples, many much rarer now than in the past. Research has shown that medieval fruit cultivars, produced without pesticides, can be more beneficial to humans than modern fruits that have not developed resistance to diseases. This artwork is from a book published in the 1680s.