64 THOREA U. 



Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in 

 the most unfavorable position, suggests such thoughts 

 as these, it is so noble a fruit. 



THE CKAB. 



Nevertheless, our wild apple is wild only like myself, 

 perchance, who belong not to the aboriginal race here, 

 but have strayed into the woods from the cultivated 

 stock. Wilder still, as I have said, there grows else 

 where in this country a native and aboriginal Crab- 

 Apple, &quot; whose nature has not yet been modified by 

 cultivation.&quot; It is found from Western New York to 

 Minnesota and southward. Michaux 1 says that its 

 ordinary height &quot; is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it is 

 sometimes found twenty-five or thirty feet high,&quot; and 

 that the large ones &quot; exactly resemble the common 

 apple-tree.&quot; &quot; The flowers are white mingled with 

 rose-color, and are collected in corymbs.&quot; They are 

 remarkable for their delicious odor. The fruit, ac 

 cording to him, is about an inch and a half in diame 

 ter, and is intensely acid. Yet they make fine sweet 

 meats, and also cider of them. He concludes, that 

 &quot; if, on being cultivated, it does not yield new and 

 palatable varieties, it will at least be celebrated for 

 the beauty of its flowers, and for the sweetness of its 

 perfume.&quot; 



I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had 

 heard of it through Michaux, but more modern bot 

 anists, so far as I know, have not treated it as of 

 any peculiar importance. Thus it was a half-fabu 

 lous tree to me. I contemplated a pilgrimage to the 

 &quot; Glades,&quot; a portion of Pennsylvania, where it was 

 said to grow to perfection. I thought of sending to 

 1 Pronounced mee-sho , a French botanist and traveller. 



