BRITISH POMOLOGY. 



ETC. ETC. ETC. 



THE APPLE. 



There is no fruit, in temperate climates, so universally 

 esteemed, and so extensively cultivated, nor is there any 

 which is so closely identified with the social habits of 

 the human species as the apple. Apart from the many 

 domestic purposes to which it is applicable, the facility 

 of its cultivation, and its adaptation to almost every lati- 

 tude, have rendered it, in all ages, an object of special 

 attention and regard. There is no part of our island 

 where one or other of its numerous varieties is not cul- 

 tivated, and few localities where the finest cannot ba 

 hrought to perfection. 



The apple is a native of this, as weU as almost every 

 other country in Europe. Its normal form is the Com- 

 mon "Wild Crab, .the Pyrus Mains of Linnaeus, and the 

 numerous varieties with which our gardens and orchards 

 abound, afe the result either of the natural tendency of 

 that tree to variation, or by its varieties being hybridized 

 with the original species, or with- each other. It belongs 

 to the natural order Rosacece, section Pomeos, and is, by 

 botanists, included in the same genus as the pear. The 

 principal diflference between apples and pears, when con- 

 sidered botanically, consists in their stamens and styles ; 

 the stamens of the apple have their filaments straight, uni, 

 ted together at the base, and forming a bundle round the 

 styles, of which they conceal the inferior part. All the 

 filaments of the pear on the contrary are divergent, dis» 

 posed almost like the radii of a wheel, and leave the bases 



B 



