Pyrus malus, 
THE COMMON APPLE-TREE. 
Synonymes. 
Pyrus malus, 
Pomier commun, 
Gemeiner Apfelbaum, 
Melo, 
Manzano, 
Maceira, 
Iablon, 
Apple-tree, 
Linn^us, Species Plantarum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
France. 
Germany. 
Italy. 
Spain. 
Portugal. 
Russia. 
Britain and Anglo-America. 
Engravings. Lindley, Pomologia Britannica ; Hoffy, Orchardist's Companion ; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, vi., pi. 173 
et 174; and the figures below. 
Specific Characters. Leaves ovate, acute, crenated, woolly on the under surface. Flowers in corymbs. 
Tube of calyx woolly. Styles glabrous. De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Description. 
"The fragrant stores, the wide projected heaps 
Of apples, which the lusty- handed year, 
Innumerous o'er the blushing orchard shakes ; 
A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen, 
Dwells in their gelid pores; and, active, points 
The piercing cider for the thirsty tongue." 
Thomson. 
KjHE Com- 
!* jj t -Tr' P mon Apple- 
K Iff LI rcl tree > m an 
^ffeS^ii indigenous 
state, when young, is generally more 
or less furnished with spines, which 
gradually disappear, as it advances in 
age ; when growing wild, however, in 
a very fertile soil, this tree, as well as 
the crab, and the common hawthorn, 
sometimes occurs without thorns. Under favourable circumstances, it usually 
attains a height of thirty or forty feet, with a trunk from one foot to eighteen 
inches in diameter. The trunk is naturally crooked, and the branches, when 
young, generally take a horizontal direction ; but when old, they droop or become 
pendulous. The diameter of the head is often greater than the height of the 
tree, its growth, in this respect, being quite different from that of the pear, 
which is lofty and upright, while that of the apple is low and spreading. The 
leaves of the apple are commonly wider in proportion to their length, less obvi- 
ously serrated, and somewhat more hairy and whitish underneath than those of 
the pear. Their vascular system too, is very different, being loose in the apple, 
and very close in the pear. Hence the leaves of the latter are much stouter, and 
more permanent than those of the former. They usually fall, in England, by 
the 20th of November, five weeks later at Naples, and a month earlier at New 
York. The blossoms of the apple are tinged with red, and are fragrant; while 
those of the pear are of a pure white, and scentless. They usually appear a- 
Naples by the 20th of March, a month later in England, two months later at 
P^rth Amboy : but not in Sweden before the 1st of June. The fruit of the applr 
