THE WILD APPLE. 
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The Wild Apple {Pyriis vialtts). 
It is by no means an easy matter to decide whether the 
Crab-trees that grow along the hedgerows are truly wild or the 
offspring of orchard apples. In woods, away from gardens and 
orchards, there is less difficulty. Like the Pear, the Apple 
appears to have been the subject of cultural attention from very 
early times. This is proved by the philologists from the simi- 
larity of the equivalents for our word Apple in all the Celtic and 
Sclavonian languages, showing by their common origin that the 
fruit was of sufficient importance to have a distinctive name 
long before the separation of the peoples of Northern Europe. 
The name of Crab is of comparatively recent origin. Prior 
regards it as a form of the Lowland Scotch scrab, derived from 
Anglo-Saxon scrobb, a shrub, indicating that it is an Apple-bush 
rather than an Apple-tree. 
The Wild Apple has not the pyramidal form of the Wild Pear, 
the branches spreading more widely when young and drooping 
when older, so that the head is rounded. In height it varies as 
a tree from twenty to thirty feet, though many examples of good 
age still retain the dimensions of a bush. Owing to the spread- 
ing character of the branches, the diameter of the head often 
exceeds the height of the tree. The bole has seldom any pre- 
tensions to symmetry, and is usually more or less crooked like 
the older branches. The brown bark is not very rough, though 
its numerous fissures and cracks give it a rugged appearance. 
Its wood, like that of the Pear, is hard and fine-grained, but, 
instead of having a reddish tinge, there is a tendency to brown- 
ness. The leaves vary in shape, but are more or less oblong, 
smooth above, sometimes downy on the lower surface when 
young, and with toothed edges. 
The flowers are about the same size as those of the Wild Pear, 
but their white petals are beautifully tinted and streaked with 
