THE APPLE. 



fyrus Jfalus. Nat. Ord., Rosacea. 



HEN covered with a mass of 

 pink-and-white blossom in the 

 month of May, the apple-tree 

 forms a -really beautiful sight. 

 It is, perhaps, hardly so com- 

 monly met with as some of 

 the preceding- plants, but is 

 not unfrequently found in woods 

 and hedges. Botanically it is the 

 Pyrus Mains, The flowers, it 

 will be noticed, grow in umbels, 

 or little bunches, at intervals on 

 the branches, and are succeeded 

 by small austere fruit, commonly 

 railed crabs or crab-apples. Unpro- 

 mising as they appear when tasted in 

 this wild state, they are yet the 

 originals of the numerous kinds of apple under cultivation. 

 The generic name is derived from the Latin pirum, a pear, 

 the specific from the Latin malum, an apple, a word, how- 

 ever, used by the Romans to denote several other fruits of 

 a like character, such as quinces, pomegranates, pears, and 

 citrons; thus Virgil speaks of " aurea mala" i.e., quinces ; 

 while in Horace we find, " ab ovo usque ad mala," the word 

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