Chap. X. 



APPLES. 



371 



is the glory of the orchards near New York: and so it is with 

 several varieties which we have imported from the Continent. On 

 the other hand, our Court of Wick succeeds well under the severe 

 climate of Canada. The Calvi'Ie roitf/e de Micoud occasionally bears 

 two crops during the same year. The Burr Knot is covered with 

 small excrescences, which emit roots so readily that a branch with 

 blossom-buds may be stuck in the ground, and will root and hear a 

 few fruit even during the first year. 91 Mr. Rivers has recently 

 described 92 some seedlings valuable from their roots running near 

 the surface. One of these seedlings was remarkable from its 

 extremely dwarfed size, "forming itself into a bush only a few 

 inches in height." Many varieties are particularly liable to canker 

 in certain soils. But perhaps the strangest constitutional peculiarity 

 is that the Winter Majetin is not attacked by the mealy bug or 

 coccus; Lindley 93 states that in an orchard in Norfolk infested 

 with these insects the Majetin was quite free, though the stock on 

 which it was grafted was affected : Knight makes a similar state- 

 ment with respect to a cider apple, and adds that he only once 

 saw these insects just above the stock, but that three days after- 

 wards they entirely disappeared ; this apple, however, was raised 

 from a cross between the Golden Harvey and the Siberian Crab ; 

 and the latter, I believe, is considered by some authors as specific- 

 ally distinct. 



The famous St. Valery apple must not be passed over; the flower 

 has a double calyx with ten divisions, and fourteen styles sur- 

 mounted by conspicuous oblique stigmas, but is destitute of stamens 

 or corolla. The fruit is constricted round the middle, and is formed 

 of five seed-cells, surmounted by nine other cells. 94 Not being 



See also Knight on the Apple-Tree, in 

 ' Transact, of Hort. Soc.,' vol. vi. d. 229. 



91 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. i. 

 1812. p. 120. 



92 ' Journal of Horticulture,' March 

 13th. 1866, p. 194. 



93 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iv. p. 

 68. For Knight's case, see vol. vi. p. 

 547. When the coccus first appeared 

 in this country, it is said (vol. ii. p. 

 163) that it was more injurious to 

 crab-stocks than to the apples grafted 

 on them. The Majetin apple has been 

 found equally free of the coccus at Mel- 

 bourne in Australia ( % Gard. Chron.' 

 1871, p. 106.")). The wood of this 

 tree has been there analysed, and it is 

 said (but the fact seems a strange one) 

 that its ash contained over 50 per 

 cent, of lime, while that of the crab 

 exhibited not quite 23 per cent. 

 In Tasmania Mr. Wade (' Transact. 



New Zealand Institute/ vol. iv., 1871, 

 p. 431) raised seedlings of the Siberian 

 Bitter Sweet for stocks, and he found 

 barely one per cent, of them attacked 

 bv the coccus. Kilev shows (' Fifth 

 Report on Insects of Missouri,' 1 873, p. 

 87) that in the United States some 

 varieties of apples are highly attrac- 

 tive to the coccus and others very 

 little so. Turning to a very different 

 pest, namely, the caterpillar of a 

 moth (Carpocapsa pomonetta), Walsh 

 affirms (' The American Entomologist,' 

 April, 1869, p. 160) that the maiden- 

 blush " is entirely exempt from 

 apple- worms." So, it is said, are 

 some few other varieties; whereas 

 others are " peculiarly subject to 

 the attacks of this little pest." 



94 ' Mem. de la S >c. Linn, de Paris,' 

 torn, iii., 1825, p. 1 64 ; and Seringe, 

 'Bulletin Bot.' 1830, p. 117. 



