

THE BOTANY OF THE APPLE TREE. 



BY CHARLES E. BESSEY, ASSISTED BY A. F. WOODS. 



The apple tree is a near relative of the roses, raspberries, black- 

 berries, strawberries, and is somewhat further removed from the plums, 

 peaches, cherries, etc. It is therefore a member of the rose family 

 (Rosacece), and has many characteristics common to the one thousand 

 related species. 



The place of this family among the flowering plants of the vegetable 

 kingdom has been a matter of some controversy, but the more rational 

 view is the one which regards its species as standing not far from the 

 lower or primitive dicotyledons (i. e., plants with two seed leaves), and 

 hence not distantly related to the buttercups, anemones, etc. Indeed 

 it is not difficult to see in the strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry, 

 and even in the apple itself, a good many resemblances to buttercups 

 and anemones. If the receptacle of a buttercup should become fleshy 

 we would have a pretty close imitation of a strawberry. If we com- 

 pare the species of Spiraea with some of the members of the butter- 

 cup family, the resemblance is still more striking. It is safe for us to 

 assume, therefore, that the family of plants to which the apple belongs 

 is not one of high botanical rank, however high we may rank it from 

 an economic standpoint. 



In the rose family there are several marked types of flowers, of 

 which the most important are the following : (1.) With several, sepa- 

 rate, free pistils, as in the strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, Spiraa, 

 etc. (2.) With several pistils which are covered with the adherent 

 calyx-tube, as in the apples, pears, quinces, etc. (3.) With but one 

 free pistil, as in cherries, peaches, plums, etc. 



The plants of the second type are sometimes set off in a sub-family 

 called the apple sub-family (Pomacece), and occasionally this has been 

 regarded as a distinct family under the same name. In the apple 

 sub-family botanists have been able to distinguish fourteen different 



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