1897] Fruit Growing in Canada. 79 



botanical position. 



A glance at the botanical position of some of our leading 

 fruits — Canadian fruits, at least — may be of interest. We see 

 at once that to the Rose family we are indebted for nearly all 

 our tree fruits, as the apple, the pear, plum, cherry, the peach and 

 its smooth-skinned sister, the apricot, in addition to the king of 

 of small fruits, the strawberry, and the members of the genus 

 Rubus, — the brambles and raspberries. 



Pyrus malus, L. with P. 'prmufolia, L. both European, are the 

 parents of the cultivated forms of the apples of to-day. By 

 comparing a ruddy specimen of the Emperor Alexander with a 

 small specimen of the Siberian crab, we may obtain an idea of the 

 improvement which has taken place in apples since the inhabit- 

 ants of the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland cultivated pomaceous 

 fruits. The native crab of America, Pyrus coronaria, L. is beauti- 

 ful in blossom, hardy in tree, but thus far incorrigibly astringent 

 in fruit However, over 80 per cent of our apples are of Ameri- 

 can origin that is to say the seed which produced them was 

 planted in American soil. Nature has not dealt generously 

 with us in matter of peaches, cherries and pears, all indigenous 

 to Europe, not found wild in America ; but man has by 

 seedling production developed varieties well adapted to the 

 vicissitudes of our varying climate. 



NATIVE FRUITS. 



Remarkable progress has been made during the last half 

 century in the development of native fruits. By looking at the 

 evolution of the American grape, a prominent example is 

 afforded. It is but a little over 60 years since Catawba, the first 

 selection from the wild Vitis Labrusca L. of the south was made. 

 But it is since the advent of the Concord, "the grape for the mil- 

 lion," about 40 years ago, that varieties have multiplied with such 

 astonishing rapidity, till at the present time they are numbered by 

 the hundreds. Another example may be cited in the native plums 



