THE APPLE 37 
mature before the pollen is ripe, a condition known 
technically as “proterogynous,” so that self-fertilisation 
cannot usually take place in this species, .nd by 
their beauty and their abundant honey the Howers 
attract many kinds of bees and other insects. We 
have yet much to learn, however, as to the indi- 
vidual tastes in colour of the various insects, and 
as to whether we can connect in any way, by 
the theory of sexual selection, their own colouring 
with that of the flowers they frequent. With regard 
to the plant, the advantage to the species of an 
occasional cross has been conclusively shown. 
The wealth of beauty of the Apple in flower, 
whether massed together in our orchards, or happened 
upon as a pleasing surprise in a hedgerow, or “ deep 
in the thicket of some wood,” is succeeded by another 
charm, perhaps not equal, but at least not despicable 
—that of the tree in fruit. In the wild state crab- 
apples are mostly of a deep red tint, as that accurate 
observer the poet Clare describes them :— 
“Crabs sun-reddened with a tempting cheek. 
There would seem, however, to be more than one 
variety in England in this respect, since crabs are 
occasionally found of a pure golden yellow, reminding 
us of Phillips’s “ Pippin burnish’d o’er with gold.” 
Whatever its form in other respects, the Apple is 
easily distinguished from the pear by its “umbilicus,” 
or depression at the base to receive the stalk. Its 
rounded outline, with one side perchance “sun- 
reddened,” has often caused it to suggest the plump 
and rosy cheeks of an English maiden ; but when we 
