CLIMAT'E, 11 



lure, and they ought to be treated of separately" 

 I shall therefore adhere to that arrangement as the 

 most simple and intelligible. 



Whether the numerous varieties of apples with 

 which our country abounds, have proceeded from the 

 dissemination of the seeds of apples brought here by 

 our European ancestors, or have been produced by 

 apples cultivated by the Aborigines before the dis- 

 covery of America by the Europeans, is a question 

 about which writers have differed, and will probably 

 continue to differ my own impressions are favoura- 

 ble to the former opinion as the most correct; as foun- 

 ded on that principle of vegetable nature, which es- 

 tablishes, that varieties have a limit to their duration ; 

 and authorises a belief that none of the Indian orchards 

 which have been discovered in America, are more an- 

 cient than the first settlement of the Europeans on this 

 continent. 



The original species of the apple, from which all 

 the existing varieties have been obtained, is believed 

 to be the Crab, or pyrus mains : when and how the 

 various kinds distinguished by an almost infinite di- 

 versity of size, colour, and flavour, have been obtain- 

 ed, are facts which I have never seen explained satis- 

 factorily; they are generally supposed to be the effect 

 of cultivation : it is sufficient for us to know, that by 



