November 2, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



519 



proves that the climatic environments are so different that 

 identical species rarely thrive in botla. And this fact lends 

 plausibility to the statement that horticultural varieties, which 

 differ from species only in degree and not in kind, must con- 

 stantly tend to diverge in the two countries. 



The dissimilarity of European and American congeneric 

 species is well illustrated in some of our fruits. Thus our cul- 

 tivated Raspberries, Blackberries, Gooseberries and Grapes 

 are American species, and the profitable cultivation of these 

 kinds of fruits did not begin until we gave up our endeavors to 

 grow the European species. The case of the Red Raspberries 

 is particularly instructive because the European and American 

 species are so much alike that botanists have never been 

 satisfied that they are distinct ; but all berry-growers know 

 that the European varieties will not succeed as market berries 

 in this country. This superiority of the American small fruits 

 and grapes is not due to any greater excellence in quality or 

 appearance in these fruits ; on the contrary, they are commonly 

 inferior in these points, for they have not yet had a long 

 enough history to bring them to a high degree of perfection. 

 Their success is due to their perfect adaptation to their sur- 

 roundings, as an ability to withstand our climate or the attacks 

 of insects and fungi. The capability to withstand or repel at- 

 tacks is well shown in the Grapes, which resist downy mildew 

 and phylloxera better than the European varieties, and in the 

 American Gooseberry, which does not suffer seriously from 

 the mildew. The European Plums are also subject to difficul- 

 ties which the native species, now coming into prominent cul- 

 tivation, more or less avoid. What is true of a comparison of 

 the European and eastern American floras appears to be true, 

 in varying degrees, of comparisons of other floras with our 

 own, all of which shows that the horticulture of eastern and 

 central North America must constantly tend to differentiate it- 

 self from that of all other countries. 



If these general conclusions are well founded, we should 

 even now be able to find some corroboration of them in a 

 study of our varieties of fruits, for the literature of our horti- 

 culture covers three-fourths of a century, and evolution aided 

 by cultivation is much more rapid than under wholly natural 

 conditions. Among the fruits which have been brought from 

 Europe the Apple has been longest cultivated in this country, 

 and it thrives over the widest range, and we should be able to 

 draw some valuable lessons from its behavior. The first 

 American work on pomology was WilHam Coxe's, published 

 m 1817. In this work is given a list of "one hundred kinds of 

 the most estimable Apples cultivated in our country." The 

 list contains one hundred and one kinds, of which only about 

 a half-dozen are now popular, and only one, the Rhode Island 

 Greening, can be classed as a general market fruit. The geo- 

 graphical origins of eighty-nine of these varieties are deter- 

 minable, of which number thirty-two, or thirty-six per cent., 

 are of European origin, and fifty-seven, or sixty-four per cent., 

 are American. The first edition of Downing, 1845, describes 

 one hundred and ninety varieties of Apples, one hundred and 

 eighty of which have known origins. Of these one hundred 

 and eighty kinds, eighty-seven, or about forty-eight per cent., 

 are European, and ninety-three, or fifty-two per cent., are 

 American. Between 1817 and 1845, therefore, there was ap- 

 parently a gain in the introduction of European Apples over 

 the American ; but tliis need excite no surprise when we con- 

 sider that those were the pioneer and formative days of Ameri- 

 can pomology, when great discrimination in varieties was not 

 practiced, and when Europe was the most prolific source of 

 nev/ varieties. 



In the second edition of Downing, 1872, v/e find a decided 

 change. There are descriptions of 1,823 varieties of Apples, 

 and the origins are fairly well determined of 1,326 of them. Of 

 this number 464, or 35 per cent., are European, and 862, or 65 

 per cent., are American ; and these figures undoubtedly give 

 undue advantage to the European Apples, because of the 497 

 varieties unaccounted for, I should judge that fully three- 

 fourths are American. In the twenty-seven years between 

 the first and second editions of Downing, therefore, there was 

 a remarkable falling off in percentage of Apples of European 

 origin and a corresponding increase in American varieties. 

 It would not be safe to say, however, that all of this loss in 

 European varieties is due to lack of adaptation of these varie- 

 ties to our climate and other environments. Fashion or the 

 desire to patronize domestic productions may have influenced 

 this result, yet it is not probable that either of these causes 

 could have defeated a profitable variety. But there is another 

 and more important aspect of the question, and that is the fact 

 that probably over three-fourths of the prominent Apples be- 

 long to the American part, which comprises 65 per cent, of 

 the list ; and of the popular market Apples a still greater per- 



centage is to be found among the Americans. In this connec- 

 tion we may study with profit the Michigan Fruit Catalogue 

 (1888), prepared by T. T. Lj'on, which rates all prominent va- 

 rieties for Michigan in three categories — dessert, culinary and 

 market — upon a scale of ten. This catalogue contains 219 

 varieties of Apples. Of these thirty-eight are rated nine and 

 ten for dessert, of which two are known to be of European 

 origin and three more are supposed to have come from that 

 country — that is, somewhat over an eighth of the dessert ap- 

 ples of Michigan are of probable European origin, the remain- 

 der being domestic varieties. Mr. Lyon admits nineteen va- 

 rieties to the rank of nine and ten for market, of which two — 

 'Duchess of Oldenburgh and Red Astrakhan — are Russian, and 

 another is perhaps of European origin. Less than one-sixth 

 of the Michigan market apples, therefore, are of Old World 

 origin, and one of these — the Duchess — is of recent introduc- 

 tion as a market apple. Of the nine Crab-apples admitted by 

 Mr. Lyon, all but the comparatively unimportant Red Siberian 

 are of American origin. 



The Pear affords an interesting study in this connection, 

 for it is a fruit which has been highly cultivated and developed 

 in Europe, but has received only indifferent attention in this 

 country, so far as the production of varieties is concerned. 

 Coxe, in 1817, described sixty-five Pears as grown in this coun- 

 try, of which only four, or less than one-sixteenth, were Ameri- 

 can in origin. Of the whole list, only the Madelaine is popular 

 now. In 1845 Downing described 239 kinds, 192 of which, or 

 80 per cent., were European, the remainder being American. 

 In 1872 the Dovvnings admitted 995 varieties, of which 954 

 have a known geographical origin. Of these, 708 varieties, or 

 seventy-four per cent, are foreign. There has, therefore, been 

 a gradual increase in the percentages of domestic varieties 

 from the beginning, although the foreign kinds are still pre- 

 dominant. In Mr. Lyon's Fruit Catalogue twenty-one Pears 

 are admitted as nine and ten for dessert, of which seven, or 

 just one-third, are American ; and exactly the same ratioholds 

 in the twelve varieties standing nine and' ten for market. All 

 these facts are indications that even in Pears the American 

 varieties are prominent and are increasing in number, and 

 they suggest the possibility that European varieties may even- 

 tually practically disappear from our horticulture. 



What is true of Apples and Pears appears to be true also of 

 other fruits. Of the seventy Peaches which Mr. Lyon cata- 

 logues, only five are foreign among those rating nine and ten 

 for dessert and market, and of this number only one — the 

 Rivers — is prominent. Next to the Pear, the common Plum 

 is the inost peculiarly European of any fruit of eastern and 

 central United States, yet of the fourteen varieties admitted by 

 Mr. Lyon as nine and ten for dessert, one-half are American, 

 and of the six marketsorts,fourare American. It is interesting 

 to note, also, that the region of adaptation of the common 

 Plum is not large, and that the varieties of the native species 

 are evidently destined to cover a very wide range of our 

 southern and interior territory. 



If any conclusion can be drawn from all the foregoing figures 

 and remarks, it is to the effect that, as a rule, American varie- 

 ties are best adapted to American conditions, notwithstanding 

 the fact that there are-some foreign varieties which thrive over 

 large areas of this country. 



Tlie question of the adaptations of the Russian fruits to this 

 country at once arises, and this brings up a still broader ques- 

 tion, the adaptability of our own eastern fruits to the great in- 

 terior basin. On a former occasion* I made an examination 

 of the reasons for the premature failure of Apple-orchards in 

 the prairie states, and I satisfied myself that much of this 

 failure is due to the transplanting of New England and New 

 York varieties to those regions. Every fruit-grower must 

 have been impressed with the fact that the Apples of these 

 prairie states are rapidly assuming a different character from 

 those of the east, and the leading varieties in the two sections 

 are even now distinct. The dissimilarity between these great 

 regions in climatic conditions is also well illustrated in the 

 floras, for there is a marked tendency for the specific types of 

 the east to stop at the borders of the prairies. In other words, 

 we have floras characteristic of the prairies and plains. Even 

 the Wild Crab (Pyrus coronaria) of the eastern states does not 

 occur in the prairie regions, so far as I know, being there rep- 

 resented by its congener, P. loensis, a well-marked species. 

 More than all this, we know that it is absolutely impossible to 

 grow our common eastern fruits in the cold north-west. Our 

 interior regions must, therefore, be considered apart from the 

 older states, and when we once understand this fact thoroughly 

 much of the prejudice against Russian fruits must disappear 



* On the Longevity of Apple-trees. Kans. Hort Soc, 1890. 



