370 FRUITS : Cbai . X. 



species. Tlie P. prcecox is supposed by some authors'*^ to be tb.e 

 ji.ireut of the dwarf iDaraiUse stock, -nhich, owing to the fibrous roots 

 not penetrating deeply into the gTound, is so largely used for 

 grafting; but the paradise stocks, it is asserted,^* cannot be propa- 

 gated true by seed. The common wild crab varies considerably in 

 England ; but many of the varieties are believed to be escaped 

 seedlings.''* Every one knows the great difference in the manner 

 of growth, in the foliage, flowers, and especially in the fruit, between 

 the almost innumerable varieties of the apple. The pips or seeds 

 (as I know by comparison) likewise diifer con.siderably in shape, 

 size, and colour. The fruit is adapted for eating or for cooking in 

 various ways, and keeps for only a few weeks or for nearly two 

 years. Some few kinds have the fruit covered with a powdery 

 secretion, called bloom, like that on plums ; and " it is extremely 

 remarkable that this occui-s almost exclusively among varieties 

 cultivated in Eussia."^'' Another Eussian a]iple, the white Astracan, 

 possesses the singular property of becoming transparent, when ripe, 

 like some sorts of crabs. The npi ttoile has five prominent ridges, 

 hence its name; the ain noir is nearly black: the tu-in duster pippin 

 often bears fruit joined in pairs.*"' The trees of the .several sorts 

 diifer greatly in their periods of leafing and flowering; in my 

 orchard the Court Pendu I hit produces leaves so late, that during 

 several springs I thought that it was dead. The Tifiin apple 

 scarcely bears a leaf when in full bloom; the Cornish crab, on the 

 other hand, bears so many leaves at this period that the flowers 

 can hardly be seen.*" In some kinds the fruit rijiens in mid- 

 summer; in others, late in the autumn. These several diflerenees 

 in leafing, flowering, and fruiting, are not at all necessarily cor- 

 related ; for, as Andrew Knight has remarked,*^ no one can judge 

 from the early flowering of a new seedling, or from the early 

 shedding or change of coloiir of the leaves, whether it will mature 

 its fruit early in the season. 



The varieties differ greatly in constitution. It is notorious that 

 our summers are not hot enough for the Newtown I'ippiji,'*'^ which 



*^ Mr. Lowe states in his ' Flora of Soc.,' 1823, p. 459. 

 Madeira' (quoted in ' Gard. Chron.,' *' H. C. Watson, ' Cvbele Britau- 



1862, p. 215) that the P. maltis, with nica,' vol. i. p. 334-. 

 its nearly sessile t'ruit, ranges farther *" Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.,' vol. 



south than the long-stalked i*. acer6a, vi., 1830, p. 83. 



which is entirely absent in Madeira, " iSt'e ' Catalogue of Fruit in Gar- 



the Canaries, and apparently in Por- den of Hort. Soc.,' 1842, and 



tugal. This fact supports the belief Downing's ' American Fruit Trees.' 

 that these two forms deserve to be ** Loudon's • Gardener's Magazine,' 



called species. But the characters vol. iv., 1828, p. 112. 

 separating them are of slight import- '^ 'The Culture of the Apple,' p. 



ance, and of a kind known to vary in 43. Van Mens makes the same remark 



other cultivated fruit-trees. on the pear, 'Arbres Fruitiers,' torn. 



*' &e'Journ. of Hort. Tour, by ii., 1836., p. 414. 

 Deputation of the Caledonian Hurt. *• Liudley's ' Horticulture,* p. 116 



