FIELD NOTES IN SEED TIME. 215 



halves which, if undisturbed, would have developed 

 into green leaves. Have these germ leaves now 

 in them the mysterious inherent properties to 

 originate a variety unlike the parent tree, or would 

 it have needed the many influences and effects 

 during the growth to have produced a new form ? 

 It is a mystery that none can fathom. How richly 

 seasoned are they with the essence of Pyrus, the 

 oil of apple, and as tasteful as almond meat. 



A. P. De CandoUe, the Swiss botanist, says, — 

 " The country in which the apple appears to be the 

 most indigenous is the region lying between Tre- 

 bizond and Ghilan " — provinces in Asiatic Turkey 

 and Persia — " where small wild forests are still to 

 be found." By what chain of curious circum- 

 stances, both of natural and artificial sowing, did 

 this fruit find its way northward through Europe, 

 and finally across the waters of the Atlantic to the 

 shores of the New World ? The pastoral Aryans 

 had perhaps cultivated it in the fertile valleys of 

 Western Asia, and from there it may have been 

 conveyed by the Romans into the Western Em- 

 pire, of which France, Spain and England were a 

 part. In later years, the early navigators of these 

 countries must have brought the seeds across the 

 ocean, as did the Puritans and non-conformists — 



