394 OEIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS. 



cultivated pear, as well as the three or four other 

 fruits which are particular favorites of man 1 That 

 is, have not the apple, i3ear, peach, cherry, apricot, 

 vine, etc., always been cultivated since the origin of 

 the human race, as the horse, ox, dog, and sheep 

 have been domesticated 1 The mention of some of 

 these fruits and animals in the very earliest history 

 of man, would lead one to suppose so ; and that the 

 results of the successive experiments of Dr. Van 

 Mons in the production of thousands of seedlings 

 of the pear from the wild type, were practically so 

 barren, — not one variety being raised of particular 

 merit. The large number of them which the au- 

 thor has had the privilege of examining in the 

 garden of the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, all exhibit 

 the wild habit and the astringency of the wild type, 

 even in the furthest generations from it. His ex- 

 periments would almost seem to satisfy scientific 

 men that some distinct line separated those cul- 

 tivated sorts from those found in a wild state. So 

 great is the difference between these remote genera- 

 tions of Van Mons, and of valuable sorts, that one 

 can, without any view of the labels, easily point 

 them out as a separate species of plants. These 

 apparently specific properties are transmitted to 

 their ofi"spring, and they can be selected and sep- 

 arated in the seed-bed, when sown indiscriminately. 

 We are aware that some persons will urge, as an 

 explanation of this, that by the long domestication 



