NEW Yi 

 BOTANK 



• GARDE 



BRITISH POMOLOGY. 



ETC. ETC. ETC. 



THE APPLE. 



There is no fruit, in temperate climates, so universally 

 esteemed, and so extensively cultivated, nor is there any 

 which is so closely identified with the social habits of 

 the human species as the apple. Apart from the many 

 domestic purposes to which it is applicable, the facility 

 of its cultivation, and its adaptation to almost every lati- 

 tude, have rendered it, in all ages, an object of special 

 attention and regard. There is no part of our island 

 where one or other of its numerous varieties is not cul- 

 , tivated, and few localities where the finest cannot be 



brought to perfection. 



' The apple is a native of this, as well as almost every 



other country in Europe. Its normal form is, the Com- 



^ mon Wild Crab, the Fyrus Malus of Linnaeus, and the 



; numerous varieties with which our gardens and orchards 



abound, are the result either of the natural tendency of 



that tree to variation, or by its varieties being hybridized 



' with the original species, or with each other. It belongs 



r- to the natural order llosacece, section Ponieoe, and is, by 



^ botanists, included in the same genus as the pear. The 



•^ principal difference between apples and pears, when con- 



> sidered botanically, consists in their stamens and styles ; 



the stamens of the apple have their filaments straight, uni- 



Q, ted together at the base, and forming a bundle round the 



g styles, of which they conceal the inferior part. All the 



■" filaments of the pear on the contrary are divergent, dis- 



*■ posed almost like the radii of a wheel, and leave the bases 



^ B 



