PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 



57 



derived, is a little fruit less than an inch in diameter, now 

 growing wild over southern and central Europe, mixed 

 with cultivated apples. Its earliest home was probably 

 the region south of the Caucasus along the Black and 

 Caspian seas. Small forests of these trees still occur in 

 that country. These apples were known and used and 

 probably cultivated long before authentic history began. 

 They were dried for winter by the Swiss lake-dwellers, 



and it has been shown that they knew two varieties of 

 apple back in the stone age, before they had discovered 

 any metals. Fig. 60 shows in outline one of the latest 

 achievements, the Bismarck apple, originated in New Zea- 

 land, and the little wild apples of thousands of years ago. 

 This gain has all been made by planting apple seeds 

 and taking good care of the trees. And of those who have 

 the patience and perseverance to plant the necessary thou- 

 sands of seeds, for they tend so strongly to fall back to the 

 little wild apple from which they sprang, and to care for 



