In attempting to trace out the history of any plant that has long been subjected to the dominion of man, we are beset with difficulties growing out of the uncertainty of language, and arising also from the absence of precise terms of science in the descriptions or allusions which we meet respecting them. As he who would investigate the history of our great national grain crop, the noble Indian maize, which, in our language, claims the generic term corn, will at once meet with terms apt to mislead him in the English translation of the Bible, and in the writings of Europeans, who use the word corn in a generic sense, as applying to all the edible grains, and especially to wheat—so in this investigation we may easily be misled by meeting the word apple in the Bible and in the translations of Latin and Greek authors, and we may be permitted to question whether the original words translated apple may not have been applied to quite different fruits, or perhaps we may ask whether our word may not originally have had a more general sense, meaning as it does, according to its derivation, any round body.
The etymology of the word apple is referred by the lexicographers to abhall, Celtic; avall, Welsh; afall or avall, Armoric; aval or avel, Cornish; and these are all traceable to the Celtic word ball, meaning simply a round body.
Worcester traces the origin of apple directly to the German apfel, which he derives from æpl, apel, or appel.
Webster cites the Saxon appl or appel; Dutch, appel; German, apfel; Danish, æble; Swedish, aple; Welsh, aval; Irish, abhal or ubhal; Armoric, aval; Russian, yabloko.
Its meaning being fruit in general, with a round form. Thus the Persian word ubhul means Juniper berries, and in Welsh the word used means other fruits, and needs a qualifying term to specify the variety or kind.
Hogg, in his British Pomology, quoting Owen, says, the ancient Glastonbury was called by the Britons Ynys avallac or avallon, meaning an apple orchard, and from this came the Roman word avallonia, from this he infers that the apple was known to the Britons before the advent of the Romans. We are told, that in 973, King Edgar, when fatigued with the labors of the chase, laid himself down under a wild apple tree, so that it becomes a question whether this plant was not a native of England as of other parts of Europe, where in many places it is found growing wild and apparently indigenous. Thornton informs us in his history of Turkey, that apples are common in Wallachia, and he cites among the varieties one, the domniasca, "which is perhaps the finest in Europe, both for its size, color, and flavor." It were hard to say what variety this is, and whether it be known to us.
The introduction of this word apple in the Bible is attributable to the translators, and some commentators suggest that they have used it in its general sense, and that in the following passages where it occurs, it refers to the citron, orange, or some other subtropical fruit.
"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples."—Songs of Solomon ii, 5.
"As the apple-tree (citron) among the trees of the wood, * * * I sat me down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."—Sol. ii, 2.
* * * "I raised thee up under the apple-tree."—Solomon viii, 5.
"A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."—Prov. xxv, 11.
The botanical position of the cultivated apple may be stated as follows:—Order, Rosaceæ; sub-order, Pomeæ; or the apple family and genus, Pyrus. The species under our consideration is the Pyrus Malus, or apple. It has been introduced into this country from Europe, and is now found in a half-wild state, springing up in old fields, hedge-rows, and roadsides; but, even in such situations, by their eatable fruit and broad foliage, and by the absence of spiny or thorny twigs, the trees generally give evidence of a civilized origin. It is not that the plant has changed any of its true specific characters, but that it has been affected by the meliorating influences of culture, which it has not been able entirely to shake off in its neglected condition. Sometimes, indeed, trees are found in these neglected and out-of-the-way situations, which produce fruits of superior quality—and the sorts have been gladly introduced into our nurseries and orchards.
Very early in the history of horticulture the apple attracted attention by its improvability, showing that it belonged to the class of culture-plants. Indeed it is a very remarkable fact in the study of botany, and the pivot upon which the science and art of horticulture turns, that while there are plants which show no tendency to change from their normal type, even when brought under the highest culture, and subjected to every treatment which human ingenuity can suggest, there are others which are prone to variations or sports, even in their natural condition, but more so when they are carefully nursed by the prudent farmer or gardener. These may be called respectively the plants of nature and the plants of culture. Some of the former furnish human food, and are otherwise useful to man; but the latter class embraces by far the larger number of food-plants, and we are indebted to this pliancy, aided by human skill, for our varieties of fruits, our esculent vegetables, and the floral ornaments of our gardens.
The native country of the apple, though not definitively settled, is generally conceded to be Europe, particularly its southern portions, and perhaps Western Asia: that is, the plant known and designated by botanists as Pyrus Malus, for there are other and distinct species in America and Asia which have no claims to having been the source of our favorite orchard fruits. Our own native crab is the Pyrus coronaria, which, though showing some slight tendency to variation, has never departed from the strongly marked normal type. The P. baccata, or Siberian crab, is so distinctly marked as to be admitted as a species. It has wonderfully improved under culture, and has produced some quite distinct varieties; it has even been hybridized by Mr. Knight, with the cultivated sorts of the common Wilding or Crab of Europe, the P. Malus. Pallas, who found it wild near Lake Baikal and in Daouria, says, it grows only 3 or 4 feet high, with a trunk of as many inches diameter, and yields pear-shaped berries as large as peas.
The P. rivularis, according to Nuttall, is common in the maritime portions of Oregon, in alluvial forests. The tree attains a height of 15 to 25 feet. It resembles the Siberian Crab, to which it has a close affinity. The fruit grows in clusters, is purple, scarcely the size of a cherry, and of an agreeable flavor; sweetish and sub-acid when ripe, not at all acid and acerb as the P. coronaria.3
Among the early writers upon the subject of pomology, we find some very crude notions, particularly in regard to the wonderful powers of the grafter, for this art of improving the Wilding by inserting buds or scions of better sorts, and thus multiplying trees of good kinds, was a very ancient invention. Pliny, the naturalist, certainly deserves our praise for his wonderful and comprehensive industry in all branches of natural history. In regard to grafting, which seems to have been well understood in his day, he says, that he had seen near Thuliæ a tree bearing all manner of fruits, nuts and berries, figs and grapes, pears and pomegranates; no kind of apple or other fruit that was not to be found on this tree. It is quaintly noted, however, that "this tree did not live long,"—is it to be wondered that such should have been the case? Now some persons may object to the testimony of this remarkable man, and feel disposed to discredit the statement of what appears so incredible to those who are at all acquainted with the well-known necessity for a congenial stock into which the graft should be inserted. But a more extended knowledge of the subject, would explain what Pliny has recorded as a marvel of the art. The same thing has been done in our own times, it is a trick, and one which would very soon be detected now-a-days by the merest tyro in horticulture, though it may have escaped the scrutiny of Pliny, whose business it was to note and record the results of his observations, rather than to examine the modus of the experiment. By the French, the method is called Charlatan grafting, and is done by taking a stock of suitable size, hollowing it out, and introducing through its cavity several stocks of different kinds, upon each of which may be produced a different sort of fruit, as reported by Pliny. The needed affinity of the scion and stock, and the possible range that may be successfully taken in this mode of propagation, with the whole consideration of the influence of the stock upon the graft, will be more fully discussed in another chapter.
Though it be claimed