APPLE. (Pyrus Mains.) 



THE apple is a large, wide-spreading tree ; the leaves are 

 ovate ; the flowers, which are produced on the wood or 

 spurs of the former year, or of two years' growth, are in ter- 

 minating umbels; the fruit is a roundish pome, its base 

 umbilicate, of a color varying from green or white to yel- 

 low, to red, or violet ; of a sweet or subacid flavor. 



In its wild state it is denominated a crab-apple, and is a 

 thorny tree, with small leaves, and a small, unpleasant, acid 

 fruit ; and from the crab-apple it is supposed all our finest 

 varieties have been produced by cultivation. The apple is 

 supposed to have been introduced into Britain by the Ro- 

 mans; and although Mr. Bartram has described a crab- 

 apple, a native of our country, the Pyrus coro?iaria, a 

 globular- formed, beautiful yellow fruit, an inch in diame- 

 ter, excellent for preserving, with blossoms of a gay and 

 beautiful appearance in spring, yet it is supposed that 

 our stock of apples originated not from this, but from 

 Europe. 



The apple is said to flourish in every part of the United 

 States, except the low lands of the maritime districts of 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and the low prairies or 

 savannas bounding on the Gulf of Mexico; and good 

 judges assert that the apples of England, and of the north 

 of France, are not to be compared, for excellence of flavor, 

 to those produced in our climate. 



USES. 



Apples, when well ripened, form an exceedingly whole- 

 some food in their raw state ; and from the qualities which 

 they possess, their habitual use, according to Mr. Knight, 

 destroys the artificial appetite for strong fermented liquors 

 and the preparations of alcohol. They abate thirst, and, 

 boiled or roasted, says Loudon, " they fortify a weak stom- 



