33 
BOTANICAL, INDEX, 
sooner or later, under the fostering care of man. What virtues lay hidden in this 
wild fruit, probably we may never know; as no people will be likely to persistently 
try to improve a sour, wild apple, while we already have those so much better. 
Pyrus Malus and P. prunifolia already have the lead. Certainly, for over two 
thousand years, the common apple has been undergoing improvement; how much 
longer no one knows. In a late essay, Dr. A. Gray “speculates as to what our po- 
mology would have been if civilization had had its birth place along the southern 
shores of our great lakes, the northern shores of the gulf of Mexico and the inter- 
vening Mississippi, instead of the Levant, Messopotamia, and the Nile;” our apples 
would have been developed from Pyrus coronaria and might have equalled anything 
we actually possess from Pyrus Malus. 
It is not certain that this species can be crossed in either way with our common 
apples. On two seasons several attempts were made by the writer, but all to no pur- 
pose. Like experiments made in crossing our cultivated Crab Apples on the wild 
species have been successful, and will be continued. In this way we can get new 
blood into our cultivated Crabs, and, perhaps, gain some desirable point in tree or 
fruit for the coldest parts of our country. It may, however, turn out like a cross 
of our common cattle with the American bison; no advantage to the buffalo, and a 
great detriment to our cattle. J. G. Soulard, in the Horticultural Report of Illinois, 
for 1868, speaks of some trees which were cultivated and bore fruit three or four 
times the size of the ordinary fruit. He fancied they were not quite so harsh. The 
tree originated in Missouri, and was thought to be the result of a cross with our com- 
mon apple, some of which grew in the immediate vicinity. Some specimens of the 
fruit were seven inches around. It is valuable for cooking, preserving, aud jellies. 
He adds: “It will keep for two years with common care in a cellar, and will stand 
