THE APPLE 35 



of cutting off the tap-roots to facilitate transplanting. 

 Where the soil is poor or badly drained, or the trees 

 are crowded, the bark is often lichen-covered, and the 

 gnarled and knotted branches are the chief habitat, 

 or " host," as the botanists facetiously term it, of that 

 unwelcome guest, the Mistletoe. The parasite grows 

 as freely upon the crab-apple as on the cultivated 

 varieties, and preying on the life-fluids of the tree, is 

 able to maintain its own verdure all the year round, 

 whilst it is not unfrequently absolutely fatal to young 

 Apple-trees in our western orchard counties. 



The Wild Apple has its dwarf shoots irregularly 

 curved, rough with crescent-shaped leaf-scars, and 

 sometimes almost thorny, though not distinctly so 

 as in the Pear. There are generally three princi- 

 pal branches, which spring from the trunk at an 

 angle of from ninety to a hundred and twenty 

 degrees, so as to produce a habit more spreading 

 than that of the Pear ; and the subsequent branches 

 and twigs spread out from one another at angles 

 slightly exceeding a right angle, giving the tree an 

 irregularly rounded head, which is so characteristic 

 as to be recognisable at a distance. 



The leaves make their appearance rather before 

 the flowers, which do not generally open before May, 

 by which time the Pear has usually lost its blossoms 

 and completed the growth of its foliage. The leaves 

 of the Apple have at first a brownish tinge, and 

 though individually pretty, are not effective among 

 the flowers, whilst they subsequently become a dull 

 darkish green, which has not much beauty. They 

 are oblong and rounded, with an abrupt point 



