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APPLE-TREE. MALUS. 





Natural order, Pomacea. A species of the Pj/rws, be- 

 longing to the genus of Icosandria Pentagynia. 



" Comfort me with Apples." 



Song of Solomon. 



THE Apple-tree appears from the testimony of Sacred 

 History, as well as that of the naturalists of ancient 

 Greece and Rome, to be a native of the east. The pro- 

 phet Joel, where he declares the destruction of the fruits 

 of the earth by a long drought, mentions the fruits which 

 were held in estimation, and among them names the 

 apple-tree. 



Solomon writes " As the apple-tree among the trees 

 of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." 



Apple-trees, from the earliest accounts, seem to have 

 required the fostering care of man. Of all fruit-trees, 

 Pliny says, the apple is the tenderest, and least able to 

 bear heat or cold, particularly the early sweet apples. 

 For a long time the apple-tree was of the highest value 

 among fruit-trees with the Romans : " there are many 

 apple-trees," says Pliny, " in the villages near Rome 

 that let for the yearly sum of 2000 sesterces," which is 

 equal to 12/. 10s. of our money; " and some of them/' 

 says this author, " yield more profit to the owner than a 

 small farm, and which brought about the invention of 

 grafting. 



" Graft the tender shoot, 



Thy children's children shall enjoy the fruit." 



Virgil. , 



