CiiAP. XIX.] 



APPLE STOCKS. 



307 



growth, without any root-pruning or attention beyond that of 

 slight pruning, according to their luxuriance. This we have 

 exactly in the Paradise stock, grown by millions in the nurseries 

 around Paris, and in many other parts of France. 



We have next to determine what is this Paradise stock. It 

 need scarcely be said that a plant like this, which exerts so 

 marked an influence on the trees grafted on it, and is so truly 

 valuable for our gardens, deserves to be at least as well known as 



FLOWER OF THE FRENCH PARADISE APPLE. 

 Drawn /rom nature and engraved hy A, Thiebaiilt. 



any one kind of fruit, however good. Yet this is so far from 

 being the case that but very little is known about it. To most 

 of the French botanists its origin is involved in obscurity ; 

 apparently the clearest account is that of Professor Koch of 

 Berlin, who has paid a great deal of attention to the origin of all 

 our fruit-trees. He says : — " The name Malus paradisiaca appears 

 to have been first used by Ruellius in the year 1537. It is a 

 native of South-Eastern liussia, Caucasus, Tartary, and the Altai 

 ]\[ountains. I have often seen this shrub in the Caucasus, and 



