16 OUE COMMON FKTJITS. 



and all the force of the nutritive power being employed 

 in developing flesh, no seeds are formed, a great empty 

 pentagonal cavity being thus left in the centre of the 

 fruits, occupying nearly a third of its diameter. But the 

 most curious of French apples is the Mains apetala, or 

 Pomme Figue, so named from the blossoms being so little 

 apparent that it was thought formerly that the fruit grew, 

 aa that of the fig seems to do, directly out of the branch, 

 the flowers, growing in little clusters, being without dis- 

 tinct petals or stamens, no rose-tinted corolla expanding 

 above the ovary, but only a miniature calyx divided into 

 five small sepals alternating with five still smaller, but all 

 of one dull green, and enclosing five central styles with 

 10 others forming a circle around them, the whole blossom 

 no larger than that of a gooseberry.* But poor and plain 

 as it is compared with the ordinary apple-bloom, this un- 

 lovely little abortion yet fulfils the main purpose of nature 

 as well as the largest and most regularly formed of its 

 charming kindred, the succeeding fruit proving a very 

 fair ordinary apple. The apple-tree is believed to be in- 

 digenous to France; but its fruit was little esteemed 

 there before the 13th century, and so late as the 17th La 

 Quintinye, after diligent search, could find no more than 

 25 varieties, of which only seven were thought of much 

 value. Even now, although many different sorts are grown 

 in that country, but very few are considered to be really 

 excellent. 



In Germany the fruit holds a far higher position, Po- 

 mology having of late years attracted a great deal of 

 attention among the G-ermans, and a vast number of 

 varieties being cultivated by their growers and described 

 by their authors. Some idea may be formed of the assi- 

 duity and perseverance with which those indefatigable 

 methodizers have sought to distinguish and classify the 

 vast variety of apples grown in their country, from the 

 fact of one of their latest writers on the subject, Doch- 

 nahl, having published a volume in 1855 containing a de- 

 tailed description of no less than 1,263 different sorts, all 



* See Plate II., fig. 2. 



