OUR fcfrMjQN FRUITS. 



to ; the ; genus Pomece of the great 

 natural order Rosacece, o which the rose is the type or 

 head of the family, and the chief characteristic of which 

 is, that the ovary, or part which contains the future seed 

 the hip of the rose or apple of the apple-tree is 

 situated below the flower, seeming like an enlargement 

 of the stalk where it meets the calyx. In most flowers 

 of this order the numerous stamens remain for a time 

 after the five petals have fallen, and the traces of the 

 five-cleft calyx are still to be seen upon the summit of 

 the fruit even when it has reached maturity. The family 

 likeness to the plant from which the order is named is 

 most apparent in the loveliest blossom of the apple tribe, 

 the Chinese Crab, which may rival in beauty the very 

 queen of flowers, when, in early spring, it puts forth its 

 deep red buds and large semi-double flowers of tenderest 

 texture, and flushed with a tint of pure though pale 

 carmine, the charm of its rosy clusters all enhanced by 

 their setting of freshest vernal green. And even the 

 ordinary apple-blossom is of no mean beauty. The pear 

 may boast of nobler form and loftier growth as a tree, 

 but its white and scentless bloom cannot compare with 

 that which glorifies the crooked stem and irregularly 

 jutting branches of its orchard neighbour with such 

 delicate fragrance and tender hue, "less than that of 

 roses, and more than that of violets," as Dante describes 

 it, and which won from the keenest living observer of 

 Nature's varying beauties (Mr. Ruskin) the testimony, 

 that " of all the lovely things which grace the spring- 

 time in this our fair temperate zone, I am not sure but 

 this blossoming of the apple-tree is the fairest." 



Nearly related as is the blossom to the loveliest of 

 flowers, that which succeeds it is undoubtedly one of the 

 most useful of fruits ; for as the earliest sorts ripen about 

 the end of June, and the latest can be kept until that 

 period, the apple may almost be said to be in season " all 

 the year round;" while, scarcely beyond reach of the 

 poorest, it is a. universal luxury in the favoured regions 

 where it thrives ; and though the noble's dessert were 

 incomplete without it, yet moistening, too, the dry bread 



