Cultivated Elementary Species 77 



formation of the original small and woody ap- 

 ple into a large, fleshy and palatable variety. 

 Subspecies, or what we now call elementary 

 species were not produced by man ; nature alone 

 creates new forms, as van Mons has it. He ex- 

 amined with great care the wild apples of his 

 country, and especially those of the Ardennes, 

 and found among them a number of species 

 with different flavors. For the flavor is the 

 one great point, which must be found ready in 

 nature and which may be improved, but can 

 never be created by artificial selection. The 

 numerous differences in flavor are quite orig- 

 inal; all of them may be found in the wild 

 state and most of them even in so limited a 

 region as the Ardennes Mountains. Of course 

 van Mons preferred not to start from the 

 wild types themselves, when the same flavor 

 could be met with in some cultivated variety. 

 His general method was, to search for a new 

 flavor and to try to bring the bearer of it up 

 to the desired standard of size and edibility. 



The latter improvement, though it always 

 makes the impression of an achievement, is only 

 the last stone to be added to the building up of 

 the commercial value of the variety. Without 

 it, the best flavored apple remains a crab ; with 

 it, it becomes a conquest. According to the 

 method of van Mons it mav be reached within 



