348 



FRUITS. 



Chap. X". 



Hungarian Gean has almost transparent flesh. The Flemish cherry is " a 

 very odd-looking fruit," much flattened at the summit and base, with the 

 latter deeply furrowed, and borne on a stout very short footstalk. In 

 the Kentish cherry the stone adheres so firmly to the footstalk, that it can 

 be drawn out of the flesh; and this renders the fruit well fitted for 

 drying. The Tobacco-leaved, cherry, according to Sageret and Thompson, 

 produces gigantic leaves, more than a foot and sometimes even eighteen 

 inches in length, and half a foot in breadth. The Weeping cherry, on 

 the other hand, is valuable only as an ornament, and, according to 

 Downing, is "a charming little tree with slender weeping branches, 

 clothed with small almost myrtle-like foliage." There is also a peach- 

 leaved variety. 



Sageret describes a remarkable variety, le griottier de la Toussaird, which 

 bears at the same time, even as late as September, flowers and fruit of all 

 degrees of maturity. The fruit, which is of inferior quality, is borne on 

 long, very thin footstalks. But the extraordinary statement is made that 

 all the leaf-bearing shoots spring from old flower-buds. Lastly, there is 

 an important physiological distinction between those kinds of cherries 

 which bear fruit on young or on old wood ; but Sageret positively asserts 

 that a Bigarreau in his garden bore fruit on wood of both ages. 82 



Apple (Pyrus malus). — The one source of doubt felt by botanists with 

 respect to the parentage of the apple is whether, besides P. malus, two or 

 three other closely allied wild forms, namely, P. acerba and prcecox or 

 paradisiaca, do not deserve to be ranked as distinct species. The P. 

 prcecox is supposed by some authors 83 to be the parent of the dwarf para- 

 dise stock, which, owing to the fibrous roots not penetrating deeply into 

 the ground, is so largely used for grafting; but the paradise stock, it 

 is asserted, 84 cannot be propagated true by seed. The common wild crab 

 varies considerably in England; but many of the varieties are believed 

 to be escaped seedlings. 85 Every one knows the great difference in the 

 manner of growth, in the foliage, flowers, and especially in the fruit, between 

 the almost innumerable varieties of the apple. The pips or seeds (as I 

 know by comparison) likewise differ considerably in shape, size, and colour. 

 The fruit is adapted for eating or for cooking in different ways, and keeps 

 for only a few weeks or for nearly two years. Some few kinds have the 

 fruit covered with a powdery secretion, called bloom, like that on plums ; 



82 These several statements are taken 

 from the four following works, which 

 may, I believe, be trusted. Thompson, 

 in 'Hort. Transact.,' see above; Sage- 

 ret's ' Pomologie Phys.,' 1830, pp. 358, 

 364, 367, 379 ; ' Catalogue of the Fruit 

 in the Garden of Hort. Soc.,' 1842, pp. 

 57, 60 ; Downing, ' The Fruits of Ame- 

 rica,' 1845, pp. 189, 195, 200. 



83 Mr. Lowe states in his ' Flora of 

 Madeira' (quoted in ' Gard. Chron.,' 

 1862, p. 215) that the P. malus, with its 

 nearly sessile fruit, ranges farther south 



than the long-stalked P. acerba, which 

 is entirely absent in Madeira, the Cana- 

 ries, and apparently in Portugal. This 

 fact supports the belief that these two 

 forms deserve to be called species. But 

 the characters separating them are of 

 slight importance, and of a kind known 

 to vary in other cultivated fruit-trees. 



84 See 'Journ. of Hort. Tour,' by 

 Deputation of the Caledonian Hort. 

 Soc, 1823, p. 459. 



85 H. C. Watson, < Cybele Britannica,' 

 vol. i. p. 334. 



