144 



TEE GARDE NEB'S MONTHLY 



[Mat, 



much to say no one could take Downing, Thomas, 

 Barry, or any of our best authors, and with a 

 strange fruit before them, certainly fix the name 

 by the description alone; and the only use of 

 these descriptions is to tell us what any thing is 

 not. If a man has a tree which he plants for a 

 Baldwin apple, and when it bears it proves a 

 Rhode Island Greening or a Porter, he will soon 

 find by examining his books that it is not a Bald- 

 win, but he will be extremely acute if he can fix 

 it as Porter or R. I. Greening. He inay come so 

 near as to fancy it may be one of these, but not 

 till he finds some one who knows these kinds 

 Avould he dare to say it was one of them. 



We liave pointed out often in these columns 

 that some one who makes varieties of fruits a 

 epecial study, would do a famous thing to arrange 

 fruits as plants arc arranged. It only requires 

 to take some fruits as types or centres of the cir- 

 cles, bringing together those that arc near like 

 each other, and naming each little circle after 

 Bome well-known one among then). When some 

 one does .this for us, Pomology will be a real 

 science and a pleasure to study it. 



In the mean time our pomologists try their 

 hand frf)m time to time with artificial systems. 

 The following is the latest classification of Apples 

 by Dr. Hogg, of the Journal of Jlorticullure, and 

 is perhaps the best of the artificial systems so 

 far: 



"The characters which I have adopted as the 

 basis of this classification are the eye, the seed- 

 cells, the calyx-tube, and the stamens. These 

 supply the primary and most important divis- 

 ions ; but they may be extended and broken up 

 into fruit round, roundi.sh, or oblate, and fruit 

 conical, oblong, or ovate, and these for conve- 

 nience may be further divided into pale, colored, 

 and russet. I will now treat of the leading char- 

 ters. 



1. The Eifr. — This is the pomological term used 

 to signify what botani.>«ta call the sepals or limb, 

 and mouth of the calyx. In French it is called 

 ceil. 



If we examine a great number of varieties of 

 Apples we find that in some the eye is wide open, 

 and the segments quite-^ellexed, in some cases so 

 much HO iis to be quite flat on the surface of the 

 fruit. This is very apparent in Blenheim Pippin, 

 Wykcn Pippin, and Court of Wick. In many 

 cases the segments are erect and spreading or 

 rcflexed at tlie tips, and this form of structure 

 also leaves the eye open though not so much so 

 aa in the previous examples. Between the spread- 



ing and the erect open eye there are many grada- 

 tions which will be remarked by any observer 

 who examines the different varieties. 



The other form is the closed eye. It will be 

 observed in this case that the segments are erect 

 and connivent at the tips, forming a small cone. 

 In some cases of this form of closed eye the tips 

 are spreading: but there is another very distinct 

 form of the closed eye in which the segments 

 are quite flat and convergent, closing in the e3"0 

 like a trap-door in five divisions, as is seen in 

 Trumpington. These two characters of eye 

 open, and eye closed, I propose to employ as my 

 primary divisions. 



2. TJie Seed-cells. — These constitute what is 

 popularly called the core of the Apple, and con- 

 tain the seeds or pips. They are usually five, 

 but they vary in number, and are occasionally 

 three, four, and even six. They differ very nuich 

 in structure, and are either open to the axis of 

 the fruit or closed ; and between the closed and 

 the wide-open cells there are as many gradations 

 as in the closed and open eye. Some have per- 

 fectly closed cells; some have them open, and in 

 others again they are wide open. In the last are 

 to be found all the Codlins, and varieties having 

 the Codlin character. 



The seed-cells form the second great divisions 

 of my system, which are distinguished as celia 

 open, and cells closed. 



3. The Calyx-lube. — In making a longitudinal 

 section of an Apple in a line through the centre 

 of the eye to the stalk a more or less deep cavity 

 will be ol)served under the segments of the eye 

 and between them and the core. This is called 

 the calyx-tube, or kelchrohre of the Germans. 

 It is of very varied form, but all of these are 

 modifications of two, or perhaps three, which 

 mny be regarded as distinct, and these I have 

 I'alled the conical and the funnel-shaped. As in 

 the cases of the open and the closed eye and the 

 open and closed cells these run into one another, 

 and there are instances in which it is difficult to 

 distinguish to which of them the individual be- 

 longs. In the examples of the conical tube, 

 some are wide and deep, and others narrow and 

 short. The funnel-shaped tube also assumes 

 various forms. The third form is the cup-shaped, 

 which very rarely occurs. 



The calyx-tube is the character on which the 

 third division is based, and is divided into calyx- 

 tube conical and calyx-tube funnel-shaped. 



4. The aiamen.s. — These arc little bristle-liko 

 bodies which are found forming a fringe round 



