i, 



194 The Apple. 



What though the leaves, now changed in hue, 



Bestrew our path where'er we turn, 

 If yonder "heaven's delicious blue," 

 Through their thinn'd bough we clearer view, 

 Ah ! who would mourn 1 



And see, I've brought a little flower, 



No lingerer it of summer's train ; 

 Like vesper star to eve's dim hour, 

 It comes to deck pale autumn's bower, 

 And leaf-strewn plain. 



Seest thou my meaning 1 youthful joy, 



And hope may fade, like summer's show ; 

 But if thy disenchanted eye, 

 "With freer gaze can loftk on high, 

 "Why, let them go. 



Yea, go — without or sigh or tear ; 

 For oh ! if holier hope be thine, 

 Think not thou'lt lack, whilst wandering here, 

 A beam to light, a flower to cheer 

 Thy calm decline. 



The Apple. 



The Apple genus belongs to the natural order Rosaceae — 

 class Icosandria, order Pentagynia. Its characters are : — calyx 

 five-cleft ; petals five ; pome inferior, five-celled, many-seeded. 

 Specific characters : — leaves ovate, acuminate, serrate, smooth ; 

 umbels simple, sessile ; claws of the corolla shorter than the 

 calyx ; styles smooth. Lindley observes, in tribes related to the 

 Rose, the Apple takes the first rank, agreeing with it in every- 

 thing but the carpels being distinct and superior, in lieu of which 

 they have the carpels united and adherent to the tube of the 

 calyx. The tree has leaves with netted veins and stipules at their 

 base. The calyx has five divisions, the petals also five ; and 

 there are a great many stamens growing out of the side of the 

 calyx. In the centre you will find five styles, but their ovaries, 

 instead of being merely enclosed in the tube of the calyx, adhere 

 and form one body with it. It is this circumstance that gives 

 rise to all the difference in the fruit. An apple is a large, fleshy 



