MAY-APPLES AND MOCK 

 MAY-APPLES 



HE name "apple" seems 

 to have been a favorite and 

 convenient resource to the 

 botanical christeners for fruits and fruit- 

 like growths of all kinds. There is the 

 oak-apple, a gall produced by the sting 

 of an insect; cedar- apple, a fungus; tomatoes were 

 called love-apples, and potatoes, ground-apples; the 

 Indian turnip-root of the plains, the prairie -apple; the 

 papaw, the custard-apple. Then we have the pineapple 

 and the two May-apples, not one of which is any more 

 entitled to the name of " apple" than were the apples of 

 Sodom, though from all accounts they are somewhat 

 more agreeable to the taste than the Scriptural fruit. 



