96 



THE WHITE ASTRACAN APPLE. 



White Astracan. Hort. Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 23, 



Transparent de Moscovie . . 7 



^ , ,, , J- of foreign Gardens. 



Glace de Zelande . ..} 



Pyrus Astracanica. Dumont Courset, Bot. Cult. ed. 2. vol. v. 

 p. 426. Decand. Prodr. vol. iL p. 635. 



The waxy secretion called bloom, which has 

 been wisely provided by nature for protecting the 

 delicate cuticle of many succulent fruits, such as 

 Plums, Grapes, and others, is scarcely found in the 

 Apple and Pear, or at least only in very minute 

 quantity. In Apples, however, there are a few ex- 

 ceptions to this ; and, what is extremely remarkable, 

 almost exclusively among varieties cultivated in 

 Russia. For instance, the Apple called by Mr. 

 Kirke the Duchess of Oldenburg, which is known 

 to be of Russian origin ; the Emperor Alexander ; 

 and the subject of this article, with some others, 

 are covered with a coating of bloom as copious and 

 delicate as that of the most beautiful Plum. 



Independently of this, the White Astracan 

 Apple possesses the singular property of becoming 

 transparent when ripe, a circumstance which is well 

 known to occur in a variety of Crab, but which is 

 very rare among Apples. It is on all these accounts, 

 we presume, that the foreign writers whom we have 

 above cited have been induced to consider this a 

 distinct species of Pyrus, in which they are un- 

 questionably wrong. 



