XV 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF APPLES 



THERE are probably something like five 

 hundred varieties of apples now known and 

 propagated by name in North America ; the 

 number of named varieties available in collec- 

 tions and elsewhere is doubtless above one 

 thousand ; while those described in our Amer- 

 ican literature runs considerably above two 

 thousand. Obviously it is impossible for any 

 one man to know them all. Any scheme of 

 classification which would group together 

 those varieties of like characteristics would 

 plainly be a great relief to the man who han- 

 dles or studies apples. 



Only once in this country has any general 

 scheme of classification ever been attempted 

 for apples. This was the purely artificial 

 system of Dr. Warder, referred to below. 

 The only essays toward a natural classifica- 

 tion have been infrequent and of the most 

 fragmentary, character. One of the most 

 striking of these was made by a joint com- 

 mittee appointed by the state horticultural 



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