ORNAMENTAL CRABS AND APPLES 



flour on the rose color. It is 

 very ornamental by its double 

 white flowers in the spring. 



No. 12. TuE Currant Crab 

 — Pomme groscille. The fruits 

 of this kind of apple are of the 

 size of the currants, and are 

 borne like them, in clusters. 

 They are round, a little com- 

 pressed towards the two ends; 

 the stem is about half an inch 

 long; the eye is large; red co- 

 lored, slightly striped with deep 

 red; it is ornamental in its 

 flowers as well as its fruits. 



I can add to the above list 

 some other kinds, which are 

 not less ornamental as trees of 

 decoration in the pleasure- 

 ground, and as desert fruits; nevertheless, 

 they take place generally among the eatable 

 fruits. 



No. 13. Transparent de Zurich Applk. 

 — Fruit of two inches high, and two and a 

 half inches in diameter; form, obovate, lar- 

 ger towards the stem, and narrower towards 

 the eye; stalk, slender, half an inch long, 

 curved, inserted in a profound cavity; eye, 

 compressed, closed, set in a wrinkled cavity ; 

 color, white, like the wax, of which this apple 

 has the appearance, and the brilliant coloring, 

 without the smallest spot; skin, very fine; 

 flesh, white, like the snow, and not different 



from the skin; dry, acidulous; it is only of No. 14. 



third rate, but I do not know another, a more pretty or more ornamental desert apple 

 ripens in September and October. 



No. 14. Black Lady Apple. — Fruit, one and one-third inches high, and one and three- 

 fourth inches in diameter; form, roundish, irregular; stalk, short, inserted in a shallow 

 cavity; eye, small, closed, set in a profound cavity; color, deep black everywhere, speck- 

 led with some gray dots towards the stem; flesh, tender, breaking, acidulous, first rate; 

 ripens from November to March. It is very curious, and very suitable as a desert fruit. 



I am very respectfully. 



It 



B. Desportes. 



Angers, France, Septernber 24, 1851. 



