THE APPLE BLOSSOM 

 (Malus sylvestris Mill) 



The apple blossom shares with the carnation 

 the distinction of being the only two flowers 

 in Nature's garden that have won two legis- 

 latures to their standards in the "battle of the 

 buds" for popular affection. While Ohio and 

 Indiana have pledged legislative fealty to the 

 carnation, Arkansas and Michigan have cast 

 their fortunes with the apple blossom (see 

 page 501). 



There are a few commonwealths which, while 

 agreeing that a thing of beauty is a joy for- 

 ever, are yet utilitarian enough to hold that 

 when a delight to the eye ripens into a joy to 

 the palate it is to be prized above all other 

 forms of loveliness. Florida and Delaware 

 share this view with Arkansas and Michigan. 



Certainly, whoever has seen an apple orchard 

 in full bloom, with its whole acres of pink and 

 white petals set in a framework of green, will 

 not need to wonder why two legislatures should 

 prize especially the beauty of the apple blossom. 



The apple blossom is one of the progressives 

 of the floral world. It wants a hardy, strong, 

 resistant posterity; so it takes careful precau- 

 tion to insure cross-fertilization. The stigmas 

 reach maturity before the anthers begin to 

 shed their pollen, and in this way the insects 

 Tiave every opportunity to bring pollen from 

 another blossom. But if the bees and the but- 

 terflies chance to overlook one, it retains its 

 petals until its own anthers are developed and 

 can enable it to produce an apple. 



Perhaps nowhere else do we get a more 

 striking picture of what selection may accom- 

 plish than in the case of the apple tree and 

 its fruit. Contrast the stately and spreading 

 winesap tree in a well-cultivated orchard with 

 the small, knotty-limbed, scaly-wooded wild 

 ■crab tree. Isn't it almost like contrasting a 

 stately elm with a dwarfed hawthorn? And 

 yet, is there as much difference between the 

 ancestral crab and the descendant winesap 

 trees as there is between their fruits? 



The wild crab-apple, though a gnarled, 

 knotty, thorny, acrid-fruited tree, is the Adam 

 of a wonderful race. An orchardist recently 

 counted more than three hundred varieties of 

 apples, all of them direct descendants of this 

 sturdy pioneer. 



What could bear better testimony to the 

 value of apples than the poetical proverbs 

 which have crept into our language celebrating 

 their qualities ! "To eat an apple before going 

 to bed will make the doctor beg his bread," 

 says one of these; and another declares, "An 

 apple eaten every day will send one's doctor 

 far away." An old Saxon coronation cere- 

 mony carried with it a benediction after this 

 fashion: "May this land be filled with apples." 



Any one who looks at a modern apple or- 

 chard finds it hard to realize how close is the 

 relationship of the apple to the rose, and yet 

 they belong to the same order, Rosacse, the 

 apple's thorns having passed under the soften- 

 ing influences of a kindly civilization. Now 

 the only thorn the apple possesses is the figura- 

 tive one that is hidden in the green fruit, which 

 small boys often discover to their anguish. 



In history, tradition, and mysticism the apple 

 has played a distinguished role. Through it, 

 we are told, "came man's first disobedience, 

 which brought death into the world and all our 

 woe." Juno gave Jupiter an apple on their 

 wedding day, and a poorly thrown one was the 

 immediate cause of the ruin of Troy. Paris 

 gave a golden apple to Venus ; Atalanta lost 

 her race by stopping to pick up one, and the 

 fair fruits of the Hesperides were the apples 

 of gold. 



In the west of England the village girls used 

 to gather crab-apples and mark them with the 

 initials of their beaux. The ones that were 

 most nearly perfect on old St. Michaelmas Day 

 were supposed to represent the lovers who 

 would make the best husbands. In our own 

 land to this day girls tell their fortunes on 

 Hallowe'en by naming the apples and counting 

 the seeds. An apple paring thrown over the 

 shoulder on that fateful night will form the 

 initial of the future mate. 



THE GOLDEN POPPY 



(Eschscholtzia californica Cham.) 



No State has chosen its representative flower 

 more appropriately than California. The golden 

 poppy, the very essence of California's sun- 

 shine, has woven its brightness into the history 

 of the Pacific coast. During the spring months, 

 when it covers valley, field, and mountain side 

 with a cloth of gold, men, women, and children 

 make a festival of poppy-gathering like the 

 Japanese at cherry-blossom time (see p. 502). 



Tradition alleges that a tilted mesa north of 

 Pasadena when aglow with poppies in the 

 spring used to serve as a beacon to coasting 

 ships more than twenty-five miles away, a tale 

 which is not wisely questioned by one who has 

 never seen the glory of a golden-poppy field. 

 Certain it is that early Spanish explorers saw 

 some of the hillsides covered with these flow- 

 ers and named the coast "The Land of Fire." 

 It was "sacred to San Pascual," they said, 

 "sincfe his altar-cloth is spread upon all its 

 hills." 



No State flower had more lovely rivals — ■ 

 Baby Blue Eyes, the butterfly or Mariposa 

 tulips, the gilias, the lupines, and the Califor- 

 nia peony have a firm hold on the affections 

 of nature lovers in a Commonwealth from 

 whose floral treasures the finest cultivated gar- 

 dens in the world have been enriched. But the 

 golden poppy safely outdistanced all compet- 

 itors and is now the crowned queen of the 

 land of the setting sun. 



The scientific name of this poppy was ac- 

 quired when a Russian scientific expedition 

 under Kotzebue, in 1815, explored what is now 

 California. Chamisso, the naturalist of the 

 expedition, named it for 1 Dr. Eschscholtz. a 

 companion naturalist, the Eschscholtzia cali- 

 fornica. It is an unfortunate name ; and the 

 extra "t" must have been inserted amid that 

 array of consonants with deliberate intent to 

 appall the English eye and paralyze the Eng- 

 lish-speaking tongue. Though copa de oro. the 

 Spanish "cup of gold," has a poetic attractive- 

 ness, yet it is not much used, even by the 

 Spanish Americans. 



487 



