STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1 



ful to trace what has been elicited In the discussion of the questions, of the probable ori- 

 gin of the Beveral species now in cultivation. 



A> we have no record of any variety of the apple thai is not supposed to have origi- 

 nated from a " Crab," or Wilding, (excepl it might be the apple tree that stood in the 

 midst of the garden of Eden, a variety not now supposed to be extant,) this question of 

 the origin of Bpecies, sub-species and varieties, becomes even to botanists, a very crabbed 

 one. Tlie writer may therefore I sensed if he gets tangled in so thorny a subject. 



Essayists generally follow the common opinion, that the cultivated apple originated 

 from seeds of the wild crab of Europe. But few facts have been adduced in support of 

 this opinion, while there are very strong inferences against it. 1st. The common apple 

 though ever exhibiting a tendency to revert to some wild or less ameliorated type, never 

 produces anything like the wild crab of Europe. 2nd. The European crab has not in la- 

 ter centuries been known to sport into any very valuable varieties. 3d. The fact that 

 the apple is flrel historically known in south-eastern Europe, while the common wilding 

 is found indigenous in England, and other parts of Europe, strongly favors the theory 

 that the improved apple is not the progeny of any European .species, but of some of the 

 wild Asiatic sorts, the original type of which may have become extinct, or the line of 

 descent obscured to the presenl knowledge of botanists. 



Loudon admits the Pyrta Malta, or parent of all our domestic sorts, to be " an assumed 

 species apparently," while Ray says distinctly that " the specific characters of the Eng- 

 lish crab and our cultivated apple, differ far more widely than those of others admitted 

 to be distinct." 



The first writer enumerates thirteen species or sub-speeics of the apple, among which 

 he describes 1st. Pyrtu Malm, or assumed wild parent of the domestic apple, "unless 

 (;:- lc says) we may reckon our domestic apple as a separate species." 



'2nd. Pyrus Malta Acerba, sour fruited apple tree, or wild crab of Europe. 



3d. Pyrus JLtltu Prunifolia, or wild Silurian crab. 



4th. Pyrtu Malta Baccata or berry-like fruited crab, also a native of Northern Asia. 



5th. Pyrtu Maluz Astracanica, or Astrachan apple found native about Astrachan. 



These five appear to be only sub-species of the true Pyrtu Malta, or unknown parent 

 of the common apple. The other species described by Loudon are the American Crabs 

 and a few others from whicb he drops the word mains, thus indicating that they are 

 more specifically distinct. None of them appear to have anything in common with 

 those Improving Bpecies, h hich are continually sporting Into new and valuable varieties. 



Wbich one of the above we may regard as being nearest In relationship to the true 

 Pyrus mains, or original type of the domestic apple, it is difficult to determine; but the 

 fad that the latter In its myriad of sports never reverts to, or produces any of the 

 others, favors the opinion first given, that the original of the common apple is not 

 now known to botanists. But while this connecting link is lacking, it does not become 

 us to supply its place by elevating what is evidently only a sub-species to that rank. 

 Indeed I think there, is much plausibility in the position of a cotemporary American 

 writer who Bays in a recent publication, " if we may judge the Pyrtu Malta Pruni- 

 fiilia or wild Siberian crab, by our cultivated fruits which pass under the same name, it 

 must be a specie.-, much more susceptible of Improvement by culture, than the Euro- 

 pean Crab and a far more probable projenltor of the putative offspring of the latter." 



The Pyrus Mains Astracanica of Loudon seems to have been but little mentioned by 



