172 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE NAME. 



Our English name, apple — in Saxon, api; J) aich, appel ; German 

 4ipfel; Danish, ae&ie"; Swedish, ^/e^jfe; Irish, aft/mi ; Armenian, araZ; 

 Eussiau, aihloko — signifies fruit in general, especially of a round form. 

 In Welsh it is aval, same as Armenia, and signifies not only the apple, 

 but the plum and other^fruits. The same word in Persian — pronounced 

 Mbhul — signifies the juniper berry. It is also applied to the pine- 

 apple, the love-apple (tomato), the lemon and orange. But with Eng- 

 lish-speaking people it is always understood to mean the fruit of the 

 apple-tree, Pyrus mains. 



The name of our glorious fruit is not derived from either branch — 

 the refined or common — of the Coptic, nor from the purer and clearer 

 Ohaldaic and Syriac, nor the God-given Hebrew, nor the classic Greek, 

 nor the sublime Latin, but is adopted from the dialects of the half-civil- 

 ized hordes of Northern Europe, who overran the Western Empire in 

 the Fifth century. Therefore, not to the educated and refined are we 

 indebted for the name of the king of all fruits, but to the unlearned 

 and commmon class of mankind. 



In the Zend-Avesta, the Zoroastrian Scriptures, written 1200 B. 

 G., as in the Sanskrit, 300 B, C, the cultivated language of the Hin- 

 <3oos, "ab" or "ap," water, and "p'hlata," fruit, signifies watery fruit, the 

 same as pomum in Latin, and is applied to the apple and other watery 

 or juicy fruits. 



ORIGIN. 



Notwithstanding it has been the world-renowned fruit from the 

 earliest ages ( Homer speaking of it as " one of the fruit-trees culti- 

 vated in gardens)," its origin, as its native land, is unknown ; the pro- 

 gressive extension of its culture is unwritten, and its improvement and 

 development into its present perfection is buried beneath the ruins of 

 the ages. 



It is claimed by authors generally that all of our fine varieties are 

 derived from the wild crab of Europe. Now, when and by whom the 

 <levelopment was begun and continued is shrouded in the mystery of 

 the unwritten past. Darkness covers the whole subject as the waters 

 <}over the great deep. No "spirit moved upon the face of the waters" 

 and said, " Let there be light." 



Downing says : " The species of crab from which all our sorts of 

 apples originated grows wild in most parts of Europe." The New Am. 

 Ency. says : " In its wild state, it is the Austere crab." Brande's 

 Ency.: " It is the cultivated fruit of the crab-apple of our hedges," 



