THE APPLE. 27 



VI. A purely artificial key is, in the opinion of the \vriter, a 

 feasible solution of the problem. Every variety has its distinguish- 

 ing characteristics or "ear-marks" by which it is known to those 

 familiar with it. In addition to the characters usually given in Ameri- 

 can descriptions should be added the internal points noted by Hogg, 

 Lucas, and other European writers. It does not appear an impossible 

 task to arrange all these various points, so that the reader, with an 

 unknown variety in hand will need to read through a few varieties 

 only instead of all. The magnitude of this proposed work places it 

 beyond the boundaries of private or State enterprise and makes it an 

 undertaking of national scope. 



REPRODUCTION OF VARIETIES. 



The beginner should understand that although as many different 

 varieties may be raised from seed of one apple as there are seeds in 

 that apple, it may also happen, especially if inbred by no other 

 varieties being near, that some of these seedlings will be so nearly 

 the same in all respects as the variety from which the seed was taken 

 as to be considered identical even by experienced pomologists ac- 

 customed to close observation of fruits. Such seedlings may be 

 called reproductions of the mother variety. It frequently happens 

 in vegetables and flowers that several varieties, very nearly alike, 

 originate in widely separated localities; in such cases only the first 

 one introduced holds its own, the others are dropped. Apples and 

 other orchard fruits do not come true to seed because it has not been 

 found necessary to fix the type by a long course of selection, it being 

 easier to reproduce the variety by grafts, buds, or sprouts. Apples 

 generally are raised in mixed orchards containing many varieties, 

 hence there is every facility for crossing with other varieties, the pollen 

 being carried by insects or the wind. However, some varieties show 

 a prepotent tendency and impress their characteristics strongly upon 

 their offspring. This is especially true in isolated localities where 

 but few varieties are grown, since inbreeding takes place to a con- 

 siderable extent. The fact that Fameuse reproduces itself so closely 

 from seed may be due to the fact that it was the main variety grown 

 in Eastern Canada by the French Canadians after the unknown parent 

 variety was brought from France; for long periods the trees were 

 raised by the early settlers from seed, hence the seed was inbred. 



This probably explains the well-marked families, types, or races 



