IV lATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 



Variations of Apples and of Melons. 



The most remarkable varieties are afforded by tlie apple 

 and the melon, and some account of these will be given as 

 illustrating the effects of slight variations accumulated by 

 selection. All our apples are known to have descended from 

 the common crab of our hedges (Pyrus malus), and from this 

 at least a thousand distinct varieties have been produced. 

 These differ greatly in the size and form of the fruit, in its 

 colour, and in the texture of the skin. They further differ in 

 the time of ripening, in their flavour, and in their keeping 

 properties ; but apple trees also differ in many other ways. 

 The foliage of the different varieties can often be distinguished 

 by peculiarities of form and coloiu-, and it varies considerably 

 in the time of its appearance ; in some hardly a leaf appears 

 till the tree is in full bloom, while others produce their leaves 

 so early as almost to hide the flowers. The flowers differ in 

 size and colour, and in one case in structure also, that of the 

 St. Valery apple having a double calyx with ten divisions, and 

 fourteen styles with oblique stigmas, but without stamens or 

 corolla. The floAvers, therefore, have to be fertilised Avith the 

 pollen from other varieties in order to produce fruit. The 

 pips or seeds differ also in shape, size, and colour ; some 

 varieties are liable to canker more than others, Avhile the 

 Winter Majetin and one or two others have the strange con- 

 stitutional peculiarity of never being attacked by the mealy 

 bue even when all the other trees in the same orchard are in- 

 fested Avith it. 



All the cucumbers and gourds A'ary immensely, l)ut the 

 melon (Cucumis melo) exceeds them all. A French botanist, 

 M. Naudin, devoted six years to their study. He found that 

 previous botanists had described thirty distinct species, as they 

 thought, Avhich Avere really only A'arieties of melons. They 

 differ chiefly in their fruits, but also very much in foliage and 

 mode of groAvth. Some melons are only as large as small 

 plums, others Aveigh as much as sixty-six pounds. One A^ariety 

 has a scarlet fruit. Another is not more than an inch in 

 diameter, but sometimes more than a yard in length, tA\asting 

 about in all directions like a serpent. Some melons are 

 exactly like cucumbers ; and an Algerian A'ariety, Avhen ripe. 



