STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 373 



{From an unfinished article kindly sent in advance by the author, from the Re- 

 port of the Montreal Horticultural Society.] 



BEPORT ON THE RUSSIAN APPLES 



IMPORTED BY THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN 1870. 



BY CHARLES GIBB, ABBOTTSFORD, QUEBEC. 



It is important to know which are the really good apples in this collection of 

 "252 varieties. This collection of apples was received by the Department from 

 Dr. Edward Regel, the director of the Imperial Botanic Gardens at St. Peters- 

 burg. A small proportion only of them had been grown in that fickle climate. 

 They were, therefore, very largely "obtained" by Dr. Regel from different 

 sources, and these mostly, though not wholly, from the coast Provinces 

 of Russia. 



There have been many drawbacks to the introduction of the Russian apple. 

 Nomenclature in Russia is much confused, that of the Department list no less 

 so. We have duplicates under different names, confusion of names as to types 

 and families, evident mistakes. In Dr. Regel's work on Russian Pomology the 

 lists of synonyms show how confused is nomenclature in Russia. Aport, which is 

 of Kaiser Alexander family, is noted as a synonym of Antonovka, Titovka of 

 Aport, Red Calville of Titovka, Titovka of Stklianka, Anisovka of Borovinka. If 

 Spitzenburg and Northern Spy were synonyms of Golden Russet, the case 

 would be somewhat parallel. 



Unfortunately in the Department list, the name is, too often, no guarantee 

 to the nature of the fruit. 



Of the two apples named Red Astrachan, No. 1 is said to be Duchess, or 

 something very like it, the other. No. 983 is a mistranslation, and not intended 

 for it. Apples whose names state them to be of Greening, Anis or Blue Pear- 

 main type, prove to be Duchess; Aports do not prove to be cf Alexander family; 

 Stekliankas the very opposite of Greenings. Apples marked Beel or Belui are 

 far from white, and others noted as red, show no trace of it. Those marked 

 winter, if from the northern part of the coast provinces, where the summer is 

 short and cool, are by no means winter apples in our longer and warmer sum- 

 mers. 



The early ripening of these apples on the Department grounds at Washing- 

 ton gave many the idea that they were all summer apples, that is summer irre- 

 spective of the climate they are grown in. Prof. Budd, of Ames, Iowa, in 1876 

 on August 20th, noted Borsdorf, No. 341, on the Department grounds, as "fall- 

 ing from the tree and about ready for use, ' ' while he quotes an authority from 

 Northern Vermont saying, "a long keeping apple of finest quality." Again, 

 Red Queen, No. 316, Mr. Budd notes as "a rusty green apple about mature 

 the 20th of August, and falling from the tree." Mr. A. G. Tuttle, Baraboo, Wis., 



