THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 75 



Perhaps the oddest of them all is the "Bloomless 

 apple." It is said to have no flowers. In fact, however, 

 the flowers are present but they lack showy petals and 

 are therefore not conspicuous. The bloomless apple is 

 a monstrous state, the cause of which is unknown. Now 

 and then a tree is reported. It was described at least as 

 long ago as 1768, and in 1770 Muenchhausen called it 

 Pyrus apetala (the petalless pyrus). The flowers have no 

 stamens, and apparently they are pollinated from any other 

 apples in the vicinity. In 1785, Moench described it as 

 Pyrus dioica (the dioecious pyrus, sexes separated on 

 different plants). The ovary is also malformed, having six 

 or seven and sometimes probably more cells, and bearing 

 ten to fifteen styles. The resulting fruit has a core char- 

 acter unknown in other apples but approached in certain 

 apple-like fruits, as the medlar. The fruit has a hole or 

 opening from the calyx (which is open) into the core; and 

 the core is roughly double, one series above the other. The 

 fruit, in such specimens as I have seen or read about, has 

 no horticultural merit ; but it is a curiosity of great botanical 

 interest. It appears now and then in widely separated places, 

 the trees probably having originated as chance seedlings. 

 The fruits from the different originations are not always 

 the same in size and form, but the flowers apparently all 

 have the same malformed character. 



The apple is preeminently the home fruit. It is not 

 transitory. It spans every season. In an indifferent cellar 

 I keep apples till apples come again. The apple stands up, 

 keeps well on the table. Children may handle it. In color 

 and form it satisfies any taste. Its rondure is perfect. The 

 cavity is deep, graceful and well moulded, holding the good 

 stem securely. The basin is a natural summit and termin- 

 ation of the, curvatures, bringing all the lines together. 



