468 [Assembly 



The Apple. 



The Common Apple-Tree (Pyrus malus,) or some allied species, 

 grows spontaneously in almost every part of the northern hemisphere, 

 except in the torrid and frigid zones, and some of the islands in the 

 ocean. This tree, by itself, or conjointly with other species or races, 

 is the parent of innumerable varieties and subvarieties, generally 

 known by the name of " cultivated apples." Many of them are not 

 only derived from the wild apple, or crab, of Europe, but from the 

 crabs of Siberia and Astrachan. The fruit of trees raised from pips, 

 or seeds of the same apple, differs both from that of the parent tree, 

 and from each other; from which circumstance, and the intermixture 

 of different species or variety by hybridization, it is utterly impossi- 

 ble to trace the multitude of cultivated sorts to forms from which they 

 have been obtained. 



In Britain, Ireland, and North America, the common apple-tree oc- 

 curs wild, in hedges, and on the margins of woods. It is cultivated 

 for its fruit, both in the temperate and transition zones of both he- 

 mispheres, even in the southern parts of India, on the Himalayas, 

 and in China and Japan. And it is a curious fact, that no plant is 

 ever seen in Guiana, without either leaf, flower or fruit, except the 

 common apple-tree, which never changes its original nature, but 

 blossoms and bears leaves and fruit at about the same time of the 

 year as with us. 



That the common apple-tree is a native of the eastern part of the 

 world, there can be no doubt; but whether the fruit called " apples" 

 by the early writers in " Holy writ," was identical with the fruit at 

 present bearing that name, we have no certain means of knowing. Ap- 

 ples are mentioned by Theophrastus, Herodotus, and Columella; and 

 the Greeks, according to Pliny, called them Medica, after the country 

 whence they were first brought in ancient times; but others conjec- 

 ture that the term " Medica,'" was more probably applied to the cit- 

 ron and the peach, both of which are supposed to have been intro- 

 duced from Media into Greece. That the Epirotica, from Epirus, 

 were what we call apples, there can be no question; as they are de- 

 scribed by Pliny, as a fruit with a tender skin, that can easily be 

 pared off; and besides, he mentions " crabs" and "wildings," as be- 

 ing smaller, " and for their harsh sourness they have many a foul 

 ■word, and shrewd curse given them." The cultivated apple, howev- 

 er, was not very abundant at Rome, in his time; for he states that 

 " there were some trees in the villas near the city, which yielded 

 more profit than a small farm, and which brought about the mven- 



