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Apple. Pyrus malus, L. (Rosace/E).' 



The apple is a fleshy fruit consisting of the ovary and calyx. 

 The outer skin or epicarp is composed of the epidermis of the 

 calyx combined with the ovary; the fleshy portion is the meso- 

 carp, formed by the cellular portion of the calyx and ovary ; while 

 the scaly layer forming the walls of the seed-bearing cavities in 

 the centre, is the endocarp. The carpels lie towards the centre 

 . . of the fruit and form the core, while the edible pulp is formed by 



the calyx, which is adherent to the exterior of the ovary. 



The better varieties of the apple usually contain some abor- 

 tive seeds^ and are sometimes individually to be found seedless. 

 As a rule, where there is a tendency to abortive seeds, the larger 

 and finer the apple the greater the number of abortive seeds. 

 Thus five Baldwin apples, weighing thirty ounces, had eleven 

 plump and nine shrivelled seeds ; five others from the same bar- 

 rel, and weighing seventeen ounces, furnished twenty-five plump 

 and three abortive seeds. 



The ancients were acquainted with the fruits of but limited 

 areas as compared with our knowledge of to-day, for transporta- 

 tion and travel were then difficult. However, a goodly number 

 of varieties are named. Pliny^ gives the names of seventeen kinds 

 as known to the Romans. In the sixteenth century Cordus- de- 

 scribes thirty-four German sorts; Le Jardinier Solitaire, 1612, 

 describes ten French varieties; Parkinson, in his Paradisus, 1629, 

 names or briefly describes fifty-seven sorts; J. Bauhin, in 1650, 

 figures fifty-nine varieties and describes seventy-four ; Rea, in his 

 Flora of 1665, describes twenty sorts; Ray, in his History, 1688, 

 names seventy-eight; Quintyne, in the English edition of his 

 Compleat Gardener, 1693, catalogues twenty-five; Zwingerus, in 

 1696, in his Kreuterbuch gives a list of two hundred and thirty- 

 ^ four apples; Langley's Pomona, 1729, describes thirty-nine; 



Miller's Dictionary, 173 i, ccxiimends forty kinds ; Knoop's Po- 

 ^ mologia, \y6o-66, gives colored figures of two hundred and fif- 



teen; Mawe*s Gardiner, 1778, enumerates sixty-seven varieties; 

 Don, in 1832, offers a list of one thousand three hundred and 

 ninety-six distinct apples; Downing, in 1866, notices six hun- 



1 Pliny, lib. xv. c. 15. 



2 J. Bauh. Hist. 1650,]. p. 5. 



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