426 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
To touch upon the subject of cultivated fruit 
Trees—however much it may be suggested by the 
mention of the wild stocks from which, by graft- 
ing, the cultivated varieties have been, and still 
can be, produced—would be altogether beside the 
purpose of this volume. To do any justice to 
such a subject would require the space which 
could alone be afforded by a library of books; 
and the reader, unless he proposes to turn his 
knowledge to practical account, would probably 
care little for the information. 
Of the Wild Apple Tree, then, we purpose alone 
to speak in this place. We have said, that in 
habit it is spreading, and that it does not reach a 
great height—its maximum height seldom ex- 
ceeding thirty-five feet—less, therefore, than that 
of the Pear, and often less than the diameter of 
its own head. Nor is it so handsome a Tree as 
the Wild Pear. Its trunk, too, is crooked and 
contorted, and though when young its branches 
take a horizontal sweep, they become pendulous 
asagecreepson. Its trunk is, further, sometimes 
rendered less handsome by its lability to various 
diseases. 
