386 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



The most valuable information for the grower is to be found in 

 the catalog of apples on the last pages of the Bulletin. Studying 

 the varieties under test has thrown light on several phases of 

 apple-growing, some of them more suited to controversy than prac- 

 tice yet worth taking into account, and these are discussed before 

 the catalog is reached under the heads: Groups of Apples, 

 Strains of Apples, Do Apples Degenerate, Natural Resistance to 

 Disease in Apples, and Seedless Apples. 



GROUPS OF APPLES. 



Horticultural writers very commonly divide apples into vaguely- 

 defined divisions called " groups." This term, like " kinds," 

 " strains," " races," and " sorts," has no official recognition in 

 the botanical or horticultural codes of nomenclature, and 

 since the codes of botany and horticulture are already com- 

 plex even to experts, it would be confounding confusion to add 

 this term officially. But we can hardly expect to have uni- 

 formity in the nomenclature of plants, wild or cultivated; and 

 since " group " is a word of great convenience to fruit-growers and 

 is understood alike by those who use it and those to whom it is 

 addressed, convenience, in this case, can well be put before princi- 

 ple and the use of " groups " be continued. 



The limits of the term are easily set; indeed, its application is 

 so apparent in pomology that it hardly needs defining. A group 

 is a collection of varieties of a fruit which has so many characters 

 in common that near kinship is apparent. Members of groups of 

 apples usually have a common ancestor, one, two, or at most, three 

 generations back. So used, a group is a fraction of the species, 

 the true botanical unit, and a variety is a fraction of the group. 



The formulation of varieties of apples into groups in accordance 

 with their blood relationships is, in one particular, at least, of 

 prime importance to apple-growers ; since groups of apples have 

 marked adaptations to particular conditions. Thus, the Winesap, 

 Romanite and Ben Davis groups are preeminently adapted to 



