POMACES. X. PVRUS. 



some imperfections in the essential parts of the blossom. In the 

 following spring, he impregnated the stigmas of many of the 

 flowers with the pollen of the bcurre pear, and most of them 

 came to perfection and produced large well-formed fruit. The 

 cross impregnation had not produced any change in the appear- 

 ance of the fruit, nor was any difference in flavour discovered. 

 Before he impregnated the blossoms, he cut < ff all the buds in 

 the corymb, except the three lowest ones, as in the former year. 

 W hether the result of the above-detailed experiments be such as 

 to authorise an expectation that artificial assistance in vegetable 

 fecundation will hereafter become of so much importance to 

 gardeners in the instances just alluded to, as in those at present 

 recognised of the cucumber, the melon, the hautbois strawberry, 

 Src. must be left to others to ascertain. 



Injuries, insects, diseases, fyc. The misletoe (Vucwn album) 

 is frequently, through negligence, suffered to injure trees in 

 orchards, and different species of mosses and lichens those of 

 gardens. " Moss," Mr. Knight observes, " appears to consti- 

 tute a symptomatic rather than a primary disease in fruit trees ; 

 it is often brought on by a damp or uncultivated soil, by the 

 age of the variety of fruit, and by the want of air and light, 

 in closely planted, unpruned orchards. In these cases it can 

 only be destroyed by removing the cause to which it owes its 

 existence." 



Blights. Whatever deranges and destroys the organization 

 of the blossoms, and prevents the setting of the fruit, is in 

 general termed a blight, whether produced by insects, parasitical 

 plants, or an excess of heat or cold, drought or moisture. One 

 of the most injurious insects with which the apple tree has been 

 visited is the Aphis lanigera of Lin., the Eriosoma mall of 

 Leach, woolly aphis, apple-bug, or American blight. " The 

 eriosomata," Leach observes, " form what are called improperly 

 galls on the stalks of trees, near their joints and knobs, which 

 are in fact excrescences, caused by the efforts of nature to repair 

 the damage done to the old trees by the perforation of those 

 insects, whose bodies are covered with white down." Sam. 

 entym. There is no way of getting rid of these insects, but 

 cleaning them off with a brush and water, together with ampu- 

 tation when it has been some time at work ; but even this will 

 not do unless resorted to at an early stage of its progress. The 

 caterpillars of many species of butterfly and moth, and the larvae 

 of various other genera of the hemiptera and lepidoptera, &c. 

 as Scarabaeus, Curculia, &c., attack the apple tree in common 

 with other fruit-trees ; and on a large scale it is difficult, if not 

 impracticable, to avoid their injurious effects. Burning straw 

 or other materials under the trees has been long recommended ; 

 but the principal thing to be relied on is regimen ; that is, judi- 

 cious subsoil and surface soil, culture and pruning. 



Ripening the fruit. Berard, in an essay on the ripening of 

 fruits, which gained the prize of the French Academy of Sciences 

 in 1821, found that the loss of carbon is essential to the ripening 

 of fruit; that this carbon combines with the oxygen of the air, and 

 forms carbonic acid, and that when the fruit is placed in an 

 atmosphere deprived of oxygen, this function becomes sus- 

 pended, and the ripening is stopped. Hence it results, that 

 most fruits may be preserved during a certain period, by gather- 

 ing them a few days before they are ripe, and placing them in 

 an atmosphere free from oxygen. The most simple process for 

 effecting this consists in placing at the bottom of a bottle, a paste 

 formed of lime, sulphate of iron, and water ; then introduce 

 the fruit, so as they may rest detached from the bottom of the 

 bottle and from each other, and cork the bottle and cover it 

 with cement. Peaches, plums, and apricots have been kept in 

 this way for a month, and apples for three months. (Journ. R. 

 Jnot. xi p. 396.) Duduit of Mazeres, has found that one-third 

 of boiled apple-pulp, baked with two-thirds of flour, having 



8 



been properly fermented with yeast for twelve hours, makes a 

 very excellent bread, full of eyes, and extremely palatable and 

 light. New Monthly Mag. June, 1821. 



Storing the fruit.- The fruit-room ought to be well ventilated, 

 and for this purpose it ought to have a fire-place. The fruit- 

 room was formerly a mere loft, where fruit was kept on the 

 floor in common with onions, with no proper means of separa- 

 tion. Now, however, they are regularly fitted up either with 

 shelves, on which to place sieves of different sorts of fruit, or 

 with close shelves, for jars or boxes, &c., according to the 

 various modes adopted for preserving them. The room may be 

 of any form, but one long and narrow is generally best adapted 

 for ventilation, and heating or drying when necessary by a flue. 

 The system of shelves may be placed along one side, and may 

 be raised to the height of six feet or more, according to the 

 number wanted. These shelves are formed of open work, on 

 which to place the sieves of fruit, each of which should be num- 

 bered, in order to know- the kind of fruit contained in each. 



Apple-tree. Fl. April. Britain. Tree 3 to 30 feet. 



21 P. DIOI'CA (Willd. arb. 263. spec. 5. p. 1018.) leaves oval, 

 serrated, clothed with tomentum beneath as well as on the ca- 

 lyxes ; flowers usually solitary, dioecious from abortion ; petals 

 linear, length of calyx; styles glabrous. Ij . H. Native 

 country unknown, but cultivated in gardens, and perhaps has 

 originated from the Pi/rus Malus. P. apetala, Munch, hausv. 

 5. p. 247. Malus dioica, Audib. cat. 



Dioecious Apple-tree. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1818. Tree 

 10 to 20 feet. 



22 P. ASTRACA'NICA (D. C. prod. 2. p. 635.) leaves oval- 

 oblong, acute, somewhat doubly serrated, pale beneath and 

 villous on the nerves, glabrous above, with the rachis puberulous. 



Jj . H. Native about Astracan. Malus Astracanica, Dnm. 

 Cours. ed. 2. vol. 5. p. 426. Perhaps only a variety of P. Malus. 

 Astracan Apple-tree. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1810. Tree 

 15 to 20 feet. 



23 P. SPECTA'BILIS (Ait. hort. kew. 2. p. 175.) leaves oval- 

 oblong, serrated, glabrous as well as the calycine tube ; umbels 

 sessile, many-flowered ; petals ovate, unguiculate ; styles woolly 

 at the base. J? . H. Native of China. Curt. bot. mag. 267. 

 Malus spect&bilis, Desf. arbr. 2. p. 141. Malus Sinensis, Dum. 

 Cours. ed. 2. vol. 5. p. 429. When it blossoms in perfection no 

 tree can be more showy than the Chinese apple tree. The flowers 

 are large, of a pale red, when open semidouble, and the buds 

 are of a deeper hue. 



Shony or Chinese Apple-tree. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1780. 

 Tree 20 to 30 feet. 



24 P. PRUNIFOLIA (Willd. spec. 2. p/1018.) leaves ovate, 

 acuminated, serrated, quite glabrous as well as the calyx ; pe- 

 duncles pubescent ; styles woolly at the base, fy . H. Native 

 of Siberia? Pyrus Malus /3. Ait. hort. kew. 2. p. 175. Mains 

 hybrida, Desf. arb. 2. p. 141.? Mill. fig. t. 269. The leaves 

 resemble those of the cherry tree ; they are on long petioles. 

 The flowers are white, much like those of the pear tree. The 

 fruit is globose, when ripe yellowish coloured, but red on the 

 side exposed to the sun, of an austere taste, decaying like the 

 fruit of the medlar, and then more palatable. 



Plum-leaved or Siberian Crab. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1758. 

 Tree 20 to 30 feet. 



25 P. BACCA'TA (Lin. mant. 75.) leaves ovate, acute, equally 

 serrated, glabrous, length of petioles ; peduncles crowded ; lobes 

 of calyx deciduous. Tj . H. Native of Siberia and Dahuria. 

 Wats. dend. t. 51. Pall. fl. ross. t. 10. Malus baccata, Desf. 

 arb. 2. p. 141. Amm. ruth. t. 31. Flowers white. Fruit 

 roundish, yellow tinged with red, about the size of a cherry ; 

 the pulp is red, and is used for making quasar punch in Si- 

 beria. 



