THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURISZ 



CLASSIFICATION OF APPLES. 



^N a recent bulletin, Trof. F. A. VVauj^h, 

 |H horticulturist oi the Vermont Experi- 

 g I mental Station, discussing- apples o{ 

 ^ the Fameuse type, says, reg-arding the 

 classification of apples : 



The second revision of Downing's " F"ruits 

 and Fruit Trees of America," which is the 

 standard work on descriptive pomology for 

 America, names i ,856 varieties of apples. 

 This list was published in 1872, since which 

 time there have undoubtedly been some hun- 

 dreds of varieties introduced. In 1892 

 Bailey made a list of the apples offered in 

 nurserymen's catalogues in the United 

 States and Canada, and found that there 

 were 878 varieties then named, propag^ated 

 and held for sale. 



Besides the varieties sold by the nursery- 

 men at any given time, there are always 

 many more not generally distributed but kept, 

 coddled and prized in private collections, 

 in small neighborhoods, or in out-of-the 

 way places. It seems a very moderate esti- 

 mate, therefore, to say that there are 1,000 

 different kinds of apples in commercial cir- 

 culation on this continent to-day, and there 

 are over 2,000 varieties described in con- 

 temporary literature, and that there have 

 been more than 3,000 separate sorts named 

 and propagated in America within the period 

 covered by our brief pomological history. 



The impossibility of any man's knowing 

 all the varieties of apples will be evident 

 from the foregoing considerations. These 

 thousands of varieties are separated from 

 one another by infinitesimal shades of dif- 

 ference. Some of them can hardly be told 

 apart by the most expert pomologists and 

 after years of acquaintance. The cultivated 

 apples are remarkably homogeneous. They 

 are (with very minor exceptions for certain 



crabs) derived from one original species. 

 Compare this with the cheries, — two or 

 three hundred varieties derived from two 

 species, — or with the plums, where a thou- 

 sand varieties are derived from ten or fifteen 

 original species. In no class of fruits, un- 

 less it be possibly the strawberries, are va- 

 riefal distinctions so thin and vexatious as 

 in apples. 



But while the characteristics oi varieties 

 of apples, taken all together, are so confusing, 

 there are a few pronounced types which the 

 horticulturist may fix in his mind, and around 

 which cluster certain groups of varieties. 

 The Fanieus presents such a type. There 

 are several different apples of the Fameuse 

 group, all differing measurably from Fam- 

 euse, but all conforming closely enoug^h to 

 the Fameuse type so that their close rela- 

 tionship with one another and with Fameuse 

 may be readily recognized by the pomolo- 

 gist. 



If the reader will consider the foregoing 

 parag-raph closely he will see what is meant 

 by the important terms "type" and "group." 

 They present the essentials of pomological 

 classification. If our multitudinous varieties 

 are ever to be classified, it must be by put- 

 ting them into groups ; and these g^roups 

 must cluster about the more conspicuous, 

 permanent and recognizable types. 



In common language these groups are 

 sometimes called " families," and some men 

 speak of the "Fameuse family," the "Ben 

 Davis family," etc. The idea is the same ; 

 but the terms "type" and "group" are 

 more precise and convenient, aside from the 

 fact that the word " family" has been pre- 

 empted in plant study with another techni- 

 cal meaninof. 



