H I N D FA LLS . 



Pear-shaped Sport of the Early Colton Apple. 



Early Colton — Cross Section of Normal Form. 



Cross Section of Early 

 Colton Sport. 



573 



The Colton Apple. — A little 

 while ago we received some curi- 

 ous apples from N. S. Piatt, 

 of New Haven Co., Conn., who 

 described them as sports of the 

 Colton. One of the specimens 

 looked as if it might have been 

 a hybrid with the quince. An- 

 other was distinctly pear-shaped, 

 while a third had a slight ten- 

 dency to oblongation at the stem 

 end. Mr. Piatt mentions that a 

 Belle Lucrative pear tree stood 

 about loo feet away, and that it 

 blossomed freely ; but we hardly 

 suppose that Mr. Piatt thought 

 the pear tree had any special in- 

 fluence upon the shape of these 

 specimens ! It was a curious co- 

 incidence, however, that about 

 the same time we received a 

 pear-shaped fruit from Rhode 

 Island, which the sender de- 

 scribed as a pear-apple, being 

 the product of a Lawrence 

 pear grafted upon a Williams 

 apple stock (?). Whatever the 

 cause may be, we deem the 

 Colton specimen interesting 

 enough for an illustration. 

 The normal specimen is also 

 shown among the illustrations, 

 for comparison. The Colton 

 is comparatively a new apple, 

 at least to the horticultural 

 world at large, though it is 

 said to have been known in 

 Franklin Co., Massachusetts, 

 for many years, the present 

 stock having been produced 

 from cions taken from a sup- 

 posed seedling on the place of 

 a Mr. Colton in the town of 

 Rowe, where it 

 has been called 

 Early Colton for 

 some fifty years. 

 Frank Ford, of 

 Ravenna, Ohio, 

 who has been 

 propagating the 

 variety, says he 

 has never known 

 it to sport in 

 the manner de- 

 scribed by Mr. 

 Piatt. Mr. Ford 

 says the apple is 

 the best early va- 

 riety in his sec- 



