1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



71 



all the time, yet a grub had eaten his way through 

 the timber ; on sandpapering the spoke for repair- 

 ing the shell of paint above the grub broke in and 

 a grub an eighth of an inch long was removed ; on 

 following the burrow for about six inches the end 

 was reached, which was over a quarter of an inch 

 in from the surface, and the wood all around the 

 end showed no inlet, leaving the conclusion upon 

 the mind that the grub in embryo must have been 

 carried to the hatching place by the sap of the tree, 

 or to have been an animalculse produced from the 

 fungus. We are led to adopt the latter idea from 

 the well-known fact that, throughout the vegetable 

 and animal kingdoms there are connected links, and 

 so low is the order of animal life that scientific 

 men differ as to whether certain species should be 

 classed with the animal or vegetable kingdom ; and 

 also from an examination of numbers of these 

 grubs some of which were less than one-sixteenth 

 of an inch in length. They were placed under a 

 glass that magnified one hundred times, and al- 

 though small protrusions could be discovered, there 

 was nothing like a mouth, thus placing them among 

 the Protozoans or fifth sub-kingdom of animals. — 

 CiM-riage Journal. 



For the Western Pomologist. 



Gleanlnes on Pomology. 



Bt J. Stautteb, Lancaster, Pa. 



In this age of improvement, when continual new 

 names and varieties of fruit are brought to our no- 

 tice, the botanist who only sees the generic charac- 

 ter is nonplussed, and has to take a back seat, when 

 the naming of particular sorts of apples and pears 

 is desired. 



It is remarkable that the word apple, (in German 

 apfel,) is of such a doubtful derivation. One au- 

 thority says, the apple, pyru3 malus, or English 

 name is derived from the Greek apios, and the Celtic 

 apt, both signifying a fruit. 



Dr. Prior says tha ap is In Tend and Sanskrit 

 "water," and p'Juila "fruit," which might lead us to 

 believe that it originally meant water, or juice-fruit, 

 ■with which the Latin pomum froni po, to drink, ex- 

 actly tallies. He also states that from a close re- 

 search he is satisfied that its origin is from the East. 

 and that the garden apple, is not, as is usually sup- 

 posed, an improved crab, but on the contrary that 

 the crab is a degenerate apple ; be this as it may, it 

 is evident that independent of the scripture men- 

 tion of the apple, several sorts of the cultivated 

 fruit were known in the days of Pliny. 



The apple is essentially a fruit of the colder and 

 more temperate regions of the globe, over which it 

 is almost universally spread and cultivated. The 

 apple tree is known to attain a great age. Haller 

 mentiona some trees in Herefordshire that stood for 



a thousand years, and were highly prolific; but 

 Knight considers two hundred years as the ordinary 

 duration of a healthy tree, grafted on a crab stock, 

 and planted in a strong tenacious soil. Speichly 

 mentions a tree in an orchard at Burton-joyce, near 

 Nottingham, England, of about sixty years old, 

 with branches extending from seven to nine yards 

 round the bole, which in 1792 produced upwards of 

 a hundred pecks of apples. 



Of all the difierent fruits of the colder latitudes, 

 the apple is perhaps the most servicable, easy of 

 culture, remains longer in season and is universally 

 relished. Many of the finer pears keep only for a 

 short time, while the apple, with a little care, can 

 be kept from one fruit season to the other. 



The wood of the cultivated apple tree is much 

 heavier and close grained than that of the wild, in 

 proportion as 66 is to 45, and almost equal to Box- 

 wood for wood-engraving, when properly seasoned. 



The apple is cultivated to the sixtieth degree 

 of north latitude ; even in the Orkney and Shet- 

 land islands very good apples grow. The 

 prophet Joel, among other fruit mentions the apple 

 tree. The art of pruning was suggested by observ- 

 ing the more vigorous shooting of a vine after a 

 goat had broused on it ; it is probable that the occa- 

 sional union of the boughs of distinct trees may 

 have also suggested the idea of grafting, although 

 Moses in his directions to the Isrealites when they 

 I'shall come into the land and shall have planted all 

 manner of trees for food," makes no mention of 

 grafting. Pliny, however, mentions apple trees 

 "that will honor the first grafters for ever," and this 

 enthusiastic praise at so remote a period, is remark- 

 able. 



To the facility of multiplying varieties by graft- 

 ing, is to be ascribed the amazing extension of the 

 sorts of apples, pears, &c., probably from one 

 common stock, as also by the application of the 

 pollen of one sort to the blossom of another, in 

 which insects can take a part in the multiplication 

 of varieties in the vegetable kingdom. 



We find Shakspeare putting these words in the 

 mouth of Justice Shallow, in his invitation to Fal- 

 staff: — "You shall see mine orchard, where, in an 

 arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own 

 grafting'" Sir Hugh Evan.s, in the "Merry Wives 

 of Windsor," says, "I will make an end of my din- 

 ner — there's pippins and cheese to come." Pippins 

 were, therefore, in the time of Shakspeare, delica- 

 cies for the dessert. 



In 1573, Tusser mentions in his list of fruits, 

 "apples of all sorts." Parkinson, in 1629, enumer- 

 ates fifty-seven sorts. Evelyn, about thirty years 

 afterwards, says, "It was through the plain industry 

 of one Harris, a fruiterer of Henry VIII, that the 

 fields and environs of about thirty towns in Kent 

 only were planted with fruit from Flanders, to the 



