"WINTER MEETING. 373 



and the '' many varieties have originated slowly from improvements of 

 this wild sort." Appleton's Am. Ency. says: "It was doubtless of 

 Eastern origin." If so, it did not "originate from the crab, which 

 grows wild in most parts of Europe." 



On Mt. Sinai grows a species fP. sinaicaj with fruit hard, gritty 

 and austere ; while Siberia and Persia produce another (P. salicifoUaJ 

 having narrow, heavy leaves. 



The apple was largely used by the Lake-dwellers of Switzerland 

 before they knew the uses of iron — both wild and cultivated sorts. 



Theophrastus, Herodotus and other Greek authors incidentally 

 refer to it. Pliny the Elder, who wrote many valuable works during 

 the First century A. D., speaks of the " crab and wild apple, so sour 

 they would take the edge off of a knife," and as " having many a foul 

 and shrewd curse given it on account of its sourness." Yet he " names 

 over 20 varieties of excellent quality, remarkable for their tine flavor," 

 and that the apple was " one of the two fruits that can be preserved in 

 casks;" from which it would seem but little progress has been made 

 in the art of keeping apples in nearly 2000 years, except where " cold 

 storage " is practicable. 



Pliny the Younger, who wrote about the beginning of the Second 

 century A. D., speaks of 22 kinds, grown in orchards under the names 

 Claudians, Pompeians, etc. ; also that grafting was practiced to per- 

 petuate the good, while the crab was small and sour. 



The Dictionary of Popular Names of Economic Plants, Jno. Smith, 

 London, defines "Apple as growing wild in Western Upper India, the 

 Caucasus Armenia and some parts of Europe. Carbonized apples 

 have been found in the deposit remains of the pre-historic Lake cities 

 (Lake dwellings) of Switzerland, evidently used for food, and were 

 the wild apple we term crab." ( De Condole believes their size proves 

 they were also of the cultivated or better sorts.) 



The tree was introduced into Rome in the time of Appius Clau- 

 dius, 449 B. C. 



The Penny Ency., a rare and valuable work, after assuming that 

 the crab is the fountain-head whence have been derived all our varieties, 

 says: " At what period it first began to acquire its sweetness and 

 other qualities peculiar to itself, or by what accident the tendency to 

 amelioration was first given, we have no means of ascertaining." 



Must we accept these statements as to its origin as true ? I am 

 not so disposed, and, denying, must try to show a better way by com- 

 mon sense (a very uncommon article ), reason and logic, as the world 

 of letters offers no written testimony. 



